Matthews took walk with Lewis

Brewton resident H.K. Matthews said he met John Lewis for the first time in 1965 just prior to the famous 'Bloody Sunday' as protesters began their march from Selma to Montgomery across the Edmund-Pettis Bridge.

Matthews, 92, said that one day changed the course of civil rights and he thought about Lewis, who died Friday at the age of 80.

"I met John during the Selma to Montgomery march," Matthews said this week. "He was 25 at the time."

Matthews said Lewis began corresponding with the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., when Lewis was about 15-years old.

Matthews said while many remember Lewis as a fighter for equal rights for blacks, he said Lewis was a fighter for equal rights of everyone.

"Dr. King took him under his wing," Matthews said of Lewis. "He was a youngster and a strong-willed man."

Matthews said Lewis took one of the worst beatings of anyone as they attempted to cross the bridge in Selma, with Lewis suffering a fractured skull.

"There were 500 to 600 people on that bridge and nobody escaped unhurt," Matthews said. "It was a horrible experience with tear gas, night sticks and police coming at us on horseback."

Matthews said he took a beating that day as well, but not as bad a Lewis.

He added that the two kept somewhat in touch over the years, noting that Lewis would often come to Brewton to visit with his friend Bernice Sims.

"John was involved in a lot of freedom rides, trying to bring attention to the unjust," Matthews said.

Born in Pike County outside Troy, Lewis was 23-years old when he founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Atlanta.

In 1981 he was elected to the Atlanta City Council and in 1986 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He died after fighting pancreatic cancer.

"He wanted what Dr. King preached, 'freedom and equality of all, regardless of their race'," Matthews said.

In 2011, President Barack Obama presented Lewis with the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Flomaton resident Ted Dean said he participated in two marches with Lewis, including the March on Washington.

"He was devoted to what he believed in," Dean said. "He did a lot for this country. If he'd had the support from the public he could have gotten more done."

Dean said Lewis believed in strength with numbers but over the years the numbers began to dwindle.

He said it saddens him to see so many black residents who don't vote, saying people like Dr. King and Lewis fought hard to get them that right.