A procession with the body of U.S. Congressman John Lewis and his flag-draped casket crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL on Sunday where the one-time “Freedom Rider” was among civil rights demonstrators beaten by state troopers in 1965.

Lewis became a leader of the Freedom Riders, often facing violent and angry crowds, and was jailed dozens of times. In 1961, he was beaten after arriving at the same Montgomery station where he arrived three years earlier to meet Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1965, his skull was fractured on the bridge in Selma when law enforcement officers beat civil rights marchers in a melee that became known as Bloody Sunday.

The procession is part of a six-day celebration of life honouring Lewis, culminating in funeral services which will be held in Georgia.

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