When we reached the crest of the bridge, I stopped dead still. …
“There, facing us at the bottom of the other side, stood a sea of blue-helmeted, blue-uniformed Alabama state troopers, line after line of them, dozens of battle-ready lawmen stretched from one side of U.S. Highway 80 to the other.
“Behind them were several dozen more armed men—Sheriff Clark’s posse—some on horseback, all wearing khaki clothing, many carrying clubs the size of baseball bats.
“On one side of the road I could see a crowd of about a hundred whites, laughing and hollering, waving Confederate flags. Beyond them, at a safe distance, stood a small, silent group of black people.
"— John Lewis, with Michael D’Orso, Walking With the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement. New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1998, pg. 338-9. (via lbjlibrary)
