1 Legacy, 2 Bridges, 60 Years Apart

Note: As stated in our mission, 50501 Veterans stands firmly for nonviolence.

Last week, members of 50501 Veterans joined the rank and file of local “Good Trouble Lives On” protests across this nation to honor the civil rights legacy of the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, an American civil rights icon.

Lewis first came to prominence in the 1960s as part of the Nashville sit-ins and the Freedom Rides protesting Jim Crow laws across the South. He was also the chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and was one of the leaders who organized the March on Washington in 1963.

But in 1965, on Selma’s Edmund Pettis Bridge, John Lewis took his most courageous stand. As he led more than 600 marchers across the bridge as part of the initial Selma to Montgomery March, the protesters were met by Alabama State Troopers who ordered them to disperse within two minutes. Barely a minute later, when marchers stopped to pray, tear gas was fired and Troopers, Sheriff’s deputies and possemen charged the demonstrators, beating them with nightsticks and bullwhips.

Lewis’s skull was fractured by the Troopers before he was able to gain sanctuary in a church. The scar it left was a visible reminder for the rest of his life of the cost he paid to “make good trouble, necessary trouble” in pursuit of his rights as an American.

And here we are today, 60 years later – at yet another literal and virtual bridge in history, watching another vicious police attack break out against peaceful protesters pursuing their rights as Americans.

As part of the Good Trouble protests last Thursday, three groups gathered at a rally in Cincinnati in support of a local Muslim imam, Ayman Soliman. Under the draconian measures championed by the Trump Administration and their supporters, this chaplain of a local children’s hospital had his asylum revoked, was jailed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and now faces deportation to Egypt – where his life will be in imminent danger due to his coverage of the Arab Spring as a freelance journalist in 2011.

As dozens of protesters on Thursday crossed the John A. Roebling Bridge that spans the Ohio River from the Queen City into Covington, KY, a scene straight out of Selma exploded into the nation’s consciousness. After one speaker asked the protesters to cross the bridge and pray on the other side of the river – something, it is important to acknowledge, that was not in the original protest plan – the Covington Police Department responded with what can only be labeled as a disproportionate show of force.

Shortly after warning the protesters to get off the bridge – by some estimates within 20 seconds – police moved forward to aggressively engage with the protesters. One police officer can be seen in a video repeatedly pummeling a protester, landing at least 18 punches to the back of his head as the protester was taken down by another officer. Other officers violently engaged with protesters who tried to intercede to stop the beating.

There are now investigations into the battle on the bridge, probes which won’t be resolved for weeks, if not months. But it is sad – and it is telling – that on a day that Americans across the country turned out to honor John Lewis’s legacy to make good trouble, the “official” narrative being perpetuated is that the protesters got what they deserved.

It seems that we have not come as far as we thought over the past six decades – from the Pettus Bridge in Selma to the John A. Roebling Bridge over the Ohio River.

But much like Selma in 1965, the American people can see with their own eyes what transpired on that bridge last Thursday, and hopefully this bodes well for our ongoing fight against fascism. This can be the inflection point where we can all be “touched by the better natures of our angels,” to quote Abraham Lincoln – yes, to peacefully protest, but also for law enforcement to respect our rights as Americans.

In future posts, we will discuss some of the key things to consider when planning a protest, especially when it comes to safety measures and what is legally allowed and what isn’t.

But in the meantime, as this summer of protest continues into the fall, it is our fervent hope that law enforcement will allow all Americans to exercise the rights guaranteed to them under the First Amendment of the Constitution – without responding unduly with the kinds of brutal assaults that were administered to the protesters on the John A. Roebling Bridge in Cincinnati last Thursday.

It is what John Lewis would DEMAND!