History and When History Becomes Real

I took history in school, and memorized dates just like everyone else.  But it wasn't real to me; just facts and figures I begrudgingly read about.  George Washington: first US President, had wooden teeth and a wife named Martha.  Abraham Lincoln: assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, freed the slaves, yada yada yada.

The founding fathers didn't become real for me until I saw Hamilton recently.  They suddenly became people.  I realized that Aaron Burr wasn't just a villain, but a complicated, nuanced character.  Alexander Hamilton wasn't perfect; he cheated on his wife.

Even history that happened during my lifetime didn't sink in to a white girl in a town of 1200 people in North Dakota.  It was images in the newspaper and later on TV, but had nothing to do with me.  I was 3 when JFK was killed in Dallas; too young to remember.  And in March of 1965, I was 4 and light years removed from Selma, Alabama.  So the Celebration of Life activities this past week for John Lewis have made history real for me once again.

Alabama State Troopers attack SNCC leader John Lewis, Edmund Pettus Bridge, Montgomery, Alabama, March 7, 1965

John was inspired by a letter he received from Martin Luther King, Jr., and when he was 17 he met him for the first time.  MLK asked if he was the "boy from Troy", and John said he was.  They remained friends until MLK was assassinated in 1968.

At 25, on a Selma, Alabama bridge named for Confederate General and local KKK leader Edmund Pettis, John led a peaceful march of 600 two by two up one side of the bridge to affirm their right to vote.  The bridge is curved, so the group couldn't see what was waiting for them on the other side.  When they reached the apex and saw the state troopers massed on the other side waiting for them, they asked for a moment.  They didn't get one, but were instead beaten.  50 people were hospitalized, John Lewis himself was almost killed, with a fractured skull.  That day, history became real for millions of citizens, because it was televised. 

John Lewis never stopped fighting for the rights of others.  He became a US Congressman, where he fought for Native American voting rights and LGTBQ citizens.  His was a life well-lived and worth remembering.