Selma photographer recalls rare MLK photo
As part of CBS News' coverage marking the 50th anniversary of the civil rights march in Selma, CBSN will be airing an encore presentation of the hour-long special "The Road to Civil Rights," anchored by Bill Whitaker and featuring new and archival footage from the CBS News library, Saturday at 11 a.m. ET and 8 p.m. ET and Sunday at 11 a.m ET.
NEW YORK -- As the 50th anniversary of the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama nears -- those who were there are sharing their memories of the historic day.
Among the many being beaten in Selma on that Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge was Lynda Lowery, a 14-year-old girl in the nineteenth row. She says she remembers a sheriff deputy hit her at least two times.
"I received seven stitches over my right eye," said Lowery. "And 28 stitches in the back of my head."
The images of that day shocked the country -- including a 24-year-old college student in New York named Stephen Somerstein.
"I thought, was this happening here in America?" Somerstein told me.
So he grabbed his camera and one of the seats on the buses of students headed south to join the march to Montgomery two weeks later.
A CBS News camera caught him as he captured one of his most memorable photos on the steps of the Alabama State House. It's among many of his never before published images now on display at the New York Historical Society.
He captured the marchers and those watching them with hope -- his sharp eye catching the irony beneath a billboard.
"I just see so many multi-generations of people who have lived a life, of the life these people are living," said Somerstein.
He also focused on those who taunted and threatened them every step of the way.
"They didn't know it, but they was makin' us so strong," said Lowery
After five days and 50 miles Lynda Lowery made it to the state house - with a message for the governor watching a few floors up.
"I'm here Governor Wallace," she said. "I'm here. See me. See me."
For a woman who made one of our most important marches forward Lynda Lowery is spending a lot of time these days looking back.
"Every day in your life is a journey," said Lowery. "And you have the ability to make history every day."
But only, she says, if you are willing to take the first step.
