On March 7, 1965, 25 year-old John Lewis co-led a peaceful march of 600 protesters from Selma to Montgomery only to be met with extreme unprovoked violence from Alabama State Troopers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. On this day, which became known as "Bloody Sunday" Lewis's skull was fractured by a night stick.
It wasn't the beginning of Lewis's courageous fight for equal rights, and it was far from the end. In fact, Lewis kept fighting for justice every day for more than half a century — including more than three decades as the conscience of Congress — until his death at the age of 80.
By contrast, Edmund Pettus, the namesake of the bridge where Lewis and his fellow protestors were beaten, was a traitor who took up arms against the United States in defense of human slavery. A Confederate general during the Civil War, Pettus continued his white supremacist crusade as a grand dragon of the KKK after the slaves were freed.
It's hard to find a less deserving person of memorial than Pettus or a more fitting recipient of the honor. John Lewis nearly lost his life on the bridge in just one of the many hallmarks of a life dedicated to the fight for justice.
Add your name to call for a true American hero to be honored. Rename Selma's bridge after John Lewis!
