The Race John Lewis Refused to Quit

On March 7, 1965, twenty-five-year-old John Lewis stood at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. As chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he and Hosea Williams led six hundred marchers toward Montgomery to demand voting rights. Lewis had packed a backpack with two books, an apple, and a toothbrush — the essentials for a jail cell. He expected arrest. What he met was far worse.

At the crest of the bridge, Alabama state troopers under Major John Cloud ordered the marchers to disperse. Seconds later, troopers charged with billy clubs and tear gas. A nightstick fractured Lewis's skull. He fell to the pavement, blood streaming down his face. He did not raise a fist. He did not curse his attackers. He got back on his feet.

That evening, ABC interrupted its broadcast of Judgment at Nuremberg to show footage of the assault. The nation watched in horror. And two weeks later, on March 21, John Lewis crossed that bridge again.

Hebrews 12:1-2 calls believers to "run with endurance the race set before us, looking to Jesus, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross." Christ did not retaliate on Calvary. He endured. Lewis understood that the race of faith is not a sprint powered by anger but an endurance march fueled by holy conviction.