Description
Inscribed by Congressman John Lewis, the first edition of Selma, 1965: The March that Changed the South by Charles R. Fager.
Octavo, [10], 241pp. Full black cloth, title in silver on spine. Full number line listed on copyright page. Solid text block, faint transference to endpapers, light foxing along edges, a near fine copy. In the publisher’s dust jacket, $7.95 retail price on front flap, touch of soiling to panels, otherwise fine. Complete with 16 pages of illustrations.
Signed by Congressman John Lewis on the half-title: “Best wishes, John Lewis.” An exceptional association copy.
John Lewis (1940-2020) served as Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1963-1966, and played an instrumental role in organizing the Selma to Montgomery marches. Lewis led the first march out of Selma on March 7, 1965, where roughly 600 participants planned to march over three days to Alabama’s state capital, Montgomery. Upon crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they were met by a wall of state officers and posse men who were not receptive to the demonstrators’ desires for negotiation. Lewis, along with many others, endured brutal violence at the hands of law enforcement on a day now remembered as “Bloody Sunday.” Lewis’s courage and resilience in the face of such brutality became emblematic of the broader struggle for civil rights in the United States. He is mentioned numerous times throughout the text by author Charles E. Fager; Quaker activist and bodyguard to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Provenance: Bunch Auctions, Lot 4676; Purchased in 2024.
