Rep. John Lewis was 25 when he was brutally beaten in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965, as he and other civil rights activists embarked on a march for voting rights for African Americans.

The shocking violence inflicted upon Lewis and his fellow marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge was televised across the country, and their physical and emotional sacrifice ultimately led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act a few months later.

Saturday, on the 50th anniversary of the march, Lewis began tweeting his memories of the day, along with photos. "I thought I saw death," he wrote. "I thought I was going to die."

Here's what happened on Bloody Sunday, in his words: