SPLC's Cohen, Rep Lewis Suggest More Martyrs Needed For Their 'Movement'

SELMA –Civil rights leaders and “foot soldiers” launched the Bridge Crossing Jubilee Saturday with the commemoration of an event that changed America.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, Southern Poverty Law Center president Richard Cohen and state Sen. Hank Sanders were among those who called for continued efforts to condemn white supremacy and other forms of discrimination.

Parents of Heather Heyer, who lost her young life at the hands of hate in Charlottesville, laying a wreath at the Civil Rights Memorial with Richard Cohen and @repjohnlewis. #MLKPilgrimage #NoMoreHate pic.twitter.com/UvQpOjGDJT

— Phil Tyler (@PtylerLt) March 3, 2018

Cohen noted that the civil rights movement did not begin in 1954 with a significant federal ruling on school desegregation and didn’t end with the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. 50 years ago.

He said he believes there could be more “movement” martyrs in the coming years, but included a ray of hope when he said he was pleased by a joint congressional resolution “condemning white supremacy.”

Congressman John Lewis with Susan Bro, the mother of Heather Hayer, at the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, AL. #MLKPilgrimage pic.twitter.com/hWmLEQ1ZBu

— Josh Stearns (@jcstearns) March 3, 2018

...Lewis, an Alabama native who was badly beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, renewed his call for all Americans to “stand up, speak up and find a way to bring about change.”

“The people of Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma used everything they had to not only change those states, but to change America, too,” he said.

“Congressman Lewis, I want to welcome you, your colleagues, and everyone on the pilgrimage to the hallowed ground of the Civil Rights Memorial,” SPLC President Richard Cohen said. “It honors those whose sacrifices, whose deaths, propelled the movement forward. Men and women, young and old, white and black – all of them are remembered here.

The #FaithAndPolitics pilgrimage was welcomed to the Southern Poverty Law Center by the president , Richard Cohen. #MLKpilgrimage pic.twitter.com/PNNKduiiaO

— Faith & Politics (@FaithNPolitics) March 3, 2018

“But, in many ways, the most important spot on the Memorial is not an entry of an historic event or the name of a martyr,” Cohen said. “Instead, it’s the blank space between the first entry on the Memorial and the last. The space signifies that the movement didn’t begin in ‘54 with the Brown decision, and it didn’t end with Dr. King’s assassination.”