Selma
Reeling from the failure of the MFDP, Lewis and SNCC were in trouble. Infighting took over the organization, and Lewis’ position was threatened. Knowing he needed a win, he ventured back to Selma. After Jimmie Lee Jackson’s murder, James Bevel suggested a march on Montgomery. King and the SCLC were all for it but SNCC was not. Its members sent out a letter, without consulting Lewis, stating “We strongly believe that the objectives of the march do not justify the dangers … consequently the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee will only live up to those minimal commitments … to provide radios and cars, doctors and nurses, and nothing beyond that” (318). Despite this letter, Lewis was determined to participate. After arguing with other SNCC members and failing to change their minds, he decided to march, not with SNCC, but as himself. On Sunday March 7th, 1965 Lewis arrived at Brown’s Chapel ready to march. There was a small problem though, King did not show up. There is a lot of controversy over why King was not there, but regardless of the reason, he was not there. King wanted to postpone the march until Monday, but there were five-hundred people at Brown’s Chapel ready to go. After some discussion, it was determined that the march would go on and Lewis and Hosea Williams would lead it. Lewis expected a confrontation, but not what he encountered. With Lewis and Williams in front, marchers set out at around four pm. When they reached the crest of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they saw a battalion of Alabama state troopers and a mob of angry whites waiting for them on the other side. Bravely continuing forward, Lewis saw the troopers putting gas masks on. Major John Cloud, the man in charge of the troopers, ordered marchers “to disperse and go back to your church or to your homes” (327). He gave them two minutes to do so, but nobody retreated. He then ordered his troopers to advance, and all hell broke loose. As Lewis describes,
“The first of the troopers came over me, a large, husky man. Without a word, he swung his club against the left side of my head. I didn’t feel any pain, just the thud of the blow, and my legs giving way. I raised an arm-a reflex motion-as I curled up in the prayer for protection position. And then the same trooper hit me again. And everything started to spin. I heard something that sounded like gunshots. And then a cloud of smoke rose all around us. Tear gas. … I began choking, coughing. I couldn’t get air into my lungs. … I was bleeding badly. My head was now exploding with pain. … I needed to get up. I’d faded out for I don’t know how long, but now I was tuned back in. There was mayhem all around me. I could see a young kid-a teenaged boy-sitting on the ground with a gaping cut in his head, the blood just gushing out. Several women were lying on the pavement and the grass median. People were weeping. Some were vomiting from the tear gas. Men on horses were moving in all directions purposely riding over the top of fallen people, bringing their animals’ hooves down on shoulders, stomachs and legs. The mob of white onlookers had joined in now, jumping cameramen and reporters. … I was up now and moving, back across the bridge, with troopers and possemen and other retreating marchers all around me. … “Please, no,” I could hear one woman scream. “God, we’re being killed!” cried another. With nightsticks and whips … Sheriff Clark’s deputies chased us all the way back into the Carver project and up to the front of Brown’s Chapel, where we tried getting as many people as we could inside the church to safety. … Even then, the possemen and troopers, 150 of them, including Clark himself, kept attacking, beating anyone who remained on the street. Some of the marchers fought back now, with men and boys emerging from the Carver homes with bottles and bricks in their hands, heaving them at the troopers, then retreating for more” (327-9).
After surviving this, which is referred to as Bloody Sunday, the Freedom Rides, and numerous other dangerous situations, Lewis was not discouraged. He persevered and continued struggling in the Civil Rights Movement. If his actions do not demonstrate unwavering devotion to the empowerment of African Americans, what does? He spilled blood and risked his life many times. Luckily, his sacrifices paid off. When the press exposed what happened at the march to America, white support for the Civil Rights Movement skyrocketed. Without this support, it is unlikely that the movement would have succeeded. Further, the Selma to Montgomery March played a large role in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Unfortunately for Lewis, the rest of SNCC did not appreciate what he had done. Ever since the failure of the MFDP, a lot of SNCC members were frustrated. Their frustration continued to grow and there was nothing Lewis could do to stop it. Despite all of the Civil Rights Movement’s wins, nothing had changed for most African Americans. Yes, they had more de jure rights, but there was a difference between laws and reality. The reality was that they were not better off than they were before the movement started. This frustration led to the rise of the Black Power Movement, a rejection of non-violence, and a desire to ban whites from the movement. Lewis did not agree with any of this, so there was conflict between him and SNCC. The end result, Lewis being replaced as chair of SNCC by Stokely Carmichael in 1966. Lewis says of his de-election, “wounds were opened that would never heal. I didn’t consider it so much a repudiation of me as a repudiation of ourselves, of what we were, of what we stood for” (368). After Carmichael’s election, SNCC became a militant organization, embracing Black Power and separatism and abandoning non-violence. Shortly thereafter, Lewis resigned from SNCC. That being said, he did not abandon the movement, working for the Field Foundation in New York and the Southern Regional Council. In 1970, he became executive director of the Voter Education Project.