This weekend in the USA many people have been celebrating the life of Congressman John Lewis. Lewis was an American politician and civil-rights leader who served in the United States House of Representatives for Georgia’s 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020. He was one of the 13 original Freedom Riders. There were seven whites and six blacks who were determined to ride from Washinghton DC to New Orleans in an integrated fashion. Perhaps most memorably he was last surviving member of the ‘Big Six’ who organised the 1963 march on Washington. Lewis led the Selma to Montgomery marches across the infamoua Edmund Pettus Bridge. In an incident which became known as Bloody Sunday, armed Alabama police attacked unarmed civil rights demonstrators, including Lewis, Hosea Williams and Amelia Boynton. He was a friend of Roas Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. Lewis was also a Presidental Medal of Honour Recepient. He will cross the bridge at Selma one last time this week, one the way to his resting place.
So in celebration of his life lets have some music celebrating the Civil Right Movement of which he was a lifelong activist. These pieces come from a concert held at the Obama White House in the days when it was filled with music rather than lies. Spo let freedom ring.
