Edmund Pettus was a senior officer in the Confederate Army, and later rose to the rank of Grand Dragon in the Ku Klux Klan. Yet Alabama has a bridge named in his honor.
It was at this bridge that Bloody Sunday took place. During a protest march from Selma to Montgomery, peaceful and unarmed activists, led by John Lewis among others, encountered armed state troopers and a county posse. The protesters were violently beaten, and in the fray Lewis suffered a fractured skull.
Lewis was an important leader in the Civil Rights movement. He represented Georgia in Congress for 33 years. He deserves to be remembered with honor.
The time is long overdue for the Edmund Pettus Bridge to get a new label. Renaming it the John Lewis Memorial Bridge honors not only the late leader, but also the struggles and suffering of all those determined to end systemic racism.
