William R. Richardson: “we have heard orally the courage of men like the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Lewis] today, but graphically, too. I would…”

“we have heard orally the courage of men like the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Lewis] today, but graphically, too. I would like to commend to my colleagues the National Trail Study that was done by the Park Service, Selma to Montgomery, and there are captions in this book that capture what we are doing here today. There is a photograph, 1965, Selma, highway patrolmen attack John Lewis, and other peaceful marchers, with clubs and tear gas on Bloody Sunday, March 7, 1965, UPI photo. Mr. Speaker, what we are doing here is marking an important historical event for this country, a significant milestone in the civil rights movement. This was the impetus for the Voting Rights Act; again the hero of the Voting Rights Act, the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Lewis], and it is only fitting that we commemorate this event with this trail study, and I want to commend the gentleman from Utah [Mr. Hansen] for the speed with which he undertook this legislation. It is also fitting that the sponsor of this important legislation is the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Lewis], probably an authentic hero here in the U.S. Congress before he came to Congress and now also as a Member of this body. When the civil rights marchers were attacked on the Edmond Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965, John was there suffering serious injury at the hands of law enforcement officials, and what the Nation saw that day, a day that has been known as Bloody Sunday, had a profound effect on American society.”