'I Saw Death': John Lewis Talks Selma's Bloody Sunday on 50th Anniversary

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Thousands of people are expected to travel to Selma, Ala. this weekend for the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," when hundreds of peaceful voting rights activists were attacked by police while crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965 as they attempted to march to Montgomery.

Bloody Sunday was the first of three attempted marches from Selma to Montgomery, which was finally completed under federal protection and led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, then a 25-year-old organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, was one of the protesters beaten on Bloody Sunday. "I was hit in the head by a state trooper with a nightstick. I had a concussion at the bridge," Lewis said. "My legs went out from under me. I felt like I was going to die. I thought I saw death. All these many years later, I don't recall how I made it back across that bridge to the church."