Change.org - This bridge honors a KKK leader?

The Edmund Pettus Bridge is one of the biggest landmarks in civil rights history. But Edmund Pettus was a Grand Dragon in the KKK and a Confederate soldier. That has over 100,000 people wanting to change the name of this infamous bridge. Michael started this petition to change the bridge’s name to the ’John Lewis Bridge.’ Lewis is a civil rights icon who marched across this bridge on Bloody Sunday in 1965. Sign Michael’s petition to demand this name change. Rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge after Rep John Lewis 157,795 have signed Michael Starr Hopkins’s petition. Let’s get to 200,000!

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“It’s far past time to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge after Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon that nearly gave his life on that bridge,” said Michael Starr Hopkins. “Edmund Pettus was a bitter racist, undeserving of the honor bestowed upon him. As we wipe away this country’s long stain of bigotry, we must also wipe away the names of men like Edmund Pettus.” The Edmund Pettus Bridge, now a National Historic Landmark, was the site of the brutal Bloody Sunday beatings of civil rights marchers during the first march for voting rights. The televised attacks were seen all over the nation, prompting public support for the civil rights activists in Selma and for the voting rights campaign. After Bloody Sunday, protestors were granted the right to continue marching, and two more marches for voting rights followed.

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