MLK lieutenant quit Selma 'because George Bush marched'

Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, James Bevel, Diane Nash

Diane Nash, a civil-rights activist who served directly for Rev. Martin Luther King – and who helped organize the original 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery marches that shed national attention on race relations – refused to participate in the 50th-anniversary march because former President George W. Bush was on hand.

"I refused to march because George Bush marched, was in the photograph," she said, in an exclusive interview with NewsOne Now. "I think the Selma movement was about non-violence and peace and democracy. And George Bush stands for just the opposite. For violence and war and stolen elections."

Nash also deemed the event as "not appropriate" for Bush, particularly because his administration "had people tortured," she said, OneNews Now reported.

"I think that George Bush's presence is really an insult to me and people who do not believe in non-violence," she said, the news outlet reported.

TRENDING: States launching legal war against Biden's 'overreaching'

Nash was one of the few women who were allowed into King's inner circle. She was also a leader in the Freedom Riders movement.

She told WLS in a recent interview, "I never considered Dr. King my leader. I always considered myself at his side and I considered him at my side. I was going to do what the spirit told me to do. So if I had a leader, that was my leader."