Lewis Hopes for High Civil-Rights Turnout

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- Rep. John Lewis' first march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama helped change civil rights laws. Next month will be his seventh march aiming to change the lawmakers.

The Georgia Democrat said Tuesday he expects a record congressional turnout for this year's trip to three Alabama cities that were pivotal in the 1960s struggle for civil rights. As of Tuesday, 40 members of Congress had already signed up, said the Faith and Politics Institute, which sponsors the expeditions. A total of 65 House members and 11 senators have joined Lewis on past trips, with 28 in 2003 the largest number on any individual excursion.
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Lewis was badly beaten when he and other civil rights activists marched across the bridge on March 7, 1965, but the brutality helped stir awareness of their cause. The Voting Rights Act was passed five months later.
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Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he had never set foot in Alabama until his first pilgrimage in 2003. Although "the education of a senator is no small feat," Durbin says retracing Lewis' footsteps is sure to make any lawmaker a more effective public servant....
For example, Durbin now asks virtually every judicial nominee the same question during confirmation hearings: Do you know who Frank Johnson was? The answer: He was the federal judge whose ruling, unpopular at the time, allowed Lewis and other demonstrators to cross the bridge in March 1965.

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