Civil Rights - Hosea Williams v. George Wallace - Testimony of John Lewis
On February 18, 1965, a state trooper shot a Black man in front of the local courthouse in Marion, AL, during a riot following demonstrations for voting rights. This sparked renewed tension in Selma and led civil rights organizers to plan marches from Selma to Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, as a peaceful protest against voter registration discrimination. On March 6, 1965, Governor George Wallace issued a statement banning any march. Nevertheless, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) representative John Lewis and Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) member Hosea Williams led an estimated 525 to 600 people across the Edmund Pettus Bridge out of Selma on March 7. Although demonstrators were marching peacefully to Montgomery, state troopers and other law enforcement personnel attacked them using tear gas, nausea gas, canisters of smoke, clubs, and horses.
This document shows a page from the transcripts from Civil Case #2181-N, Hosea Williams v. George Wallace from the U.S. District Court of Alabama, Middle District, Montgomery Division. In this transcript, John Lewis, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1987 to 2020, describes the attacks against him and the other peaceful demonstrators.
Hosea Williams, John Lewis, and Amelia Boynton et al. v. Honorable George C. Wallace, as Governor of the State of Alabama et al., Civil Action No. 2181-N, dated 1965. National Archives Identifier: 643802
View and download the full case file in the National Archives Catalog. This witness account is one example of the many records held at the National Archives at Atlanta, GA. You can explore more of our holdings by visiting our online Catalog or by visiting the National Archives at Atlanta. This record is located within Record Group 21: Records of the District Courts of the United States, Series: Civil Case Files, 1938-1968. Many of the records in this collection have yet to be digitized. We encourage researchers to visit us onsite to explore these records and learn more about the archival collections held in the National Archives at Atlanta.