MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) 鈥� A statue of the late U.S. Rep. a civil rights icon, has been unveiled in Alabama's capital city.
The likeness, called Steadfast Stride Toward Justice, sits in the Equal Justice Initiative's Legacy Plaza in Montgomery. It joins statues of Rosa Parks, unveiled in February, and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., unveiled in June,
Atlanta-based sculptor Basil Watson created all three statues, which stand across from the initiative's Legacy Museum in Montgomery.
鈥淚 just think the entire state of Alabama owes John Lewis so much because he pulled us all out of the darkness of Jim Crow and racial segregation,鈥� said the initiative's executive director, Bryan Stevenson. 鈥淗e created the opportunities that we get to celebrate in so many of our public spaces, from football fields to basketball places. It wouldn鈥檛 have been possible without his courage.鈥�
In addition to the statues, the plaza features a brick sculpture memorializing civil rights marchers and a mural by local artist Kevin King.
Lewis was a native of Pike County, Alabama, and is known for leading hundreds across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on March 7, 1965, a day now known as 鈥淏loody Sunday.鈥�
He was elected to the Atlanta City Council in 1981 and to Congress in 1986, where he served 17 terms in the U.S. House from Georgia鈥檚 5th District. He at age 80.
Former President Barack Obama awarded Lewis the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.
鈥淕enerations from now, when parents teach their children what is meant by courage, the story of John Lewis will come to mind -- an American who knew that change could not wait for some other person or some other time; whose life is a lesson in the fierce urgency of now,鈥� the former president said during the ceremony.
The Associated Press
