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Ryan Joins Congressional Pilgrimage Retracing Steps of Civil Rights Movement

WASHINGTON – Wisconsin’s First District Congressman Paul Ryan will travel to Alabama this weekend to take part in a bipartisan congressional pilgrimage to historic civil rights sites in Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma.  Georgia Congressman John Lewis, a civil rights leader and one of the leaders of this pilgrimage, along with others will lead participants in a re-enactment of the 1965 Voting Rights March across historic Edmund Pettus Bridge. 

“This is a unique opportunity to immerse ourselves in the history of the civil rights movement and learn from those who were there,” Ryan said. “Those who stood up for civil rights through non-violent protests were upholding the principles of freedom and equal opportunity on which our country was founded.  They suffered terrible persecution in the name of our nation’s true principles, and I have great respect for these courageous activists.”  

“I’m excited about learning more about the civil rights movement’s history and reflecting on its immense significance,” Ryan said.

Members of Congress who attend this pilgrimage will begin their visit in Montgomery, Alabama.  They will tour the Rosa Parks Library and Museum and visit the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church and the Civil Rights Memorial.  They will also visit the First Baptist Church and hear the story of the freedom rides.   

The pilgrimage will proceed to Birmingham, where participants will visit Kelly Ingram Park as well as the 16^th Street Baptist Church and tour the Civil Rights Institute.  The journey will conclude with a visit to Selma on Sunday, where Members will attend church at Brown Chapel AME Church and cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in commemoration of the voting rights activists who were attacked crossing that bridge on Bloody Sunday – March 7, 1965, marking the 38^th anniversary of that day.

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