Clarksville, TN – On Friday, August 28th, 2020, members of the Austin Peay State University (APSU) football team made a special stop in Selma, Alabama, to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
“What a great experience in Selma with our Govs football student athletes!” Austin Peay State University’s Director of Athletics Gerald Harrison wrote on Twitter. “Also great to have President Dannelle Whiteside join us as we walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
“Today we all learned a little more about Good Trouble,” Harrison wrote.
Whiteside, APSU’s interim president, noted in a tweet, “Powerful moment with @GovsFB walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge!”
USA Today’s Phil Kaplan noted the visit followed in the footsteps of civil rights icon John Lewis, who died July 17th. Lewis led a march across the bridge on March 7th, 1965, to raise awareness of racial inequities in voting registration.
State troopers attacked Lewis and fractured his skull after he crossed the bridge. A photograph of Lewis succumbing to the trooper’s blows is an iconic image of the civil rights movement.
In a June 2018 tweet, Lewis reflected on the continuing fight against racial inequities: “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”
The Austin Peay State University football team’s visit to the bridge came a day before their game against Central Arkansas in the 2020 Guardian Credit Union FCS Kickoff in Montgomery, Alabama. The game was the first college football game of the season and received a national audience during primetime on ESPN.
After opening the game with a 75-yard touchdown, the Govs lost on a last-minute touchdown, 24-17.
