“The identify Edmund Pettus not is about Edmund Pettus from the Civil Struggle, from the Confederacy,” stated Collins Pettaway III, a political com
“The identify Edmund Pettus not is about Edmund Pettus from the Civil Struggle, from the Confederacy,” stated Collins Pettaway III, a political communications specialist and a Selma native. “The Edmund Pettus Bridge is now a staple and image of civil rights and voting fairness, in addition to voting rights. It’s a logo of hope, of freedom. And that’s been a reputation that has handed by way of generations.”
Alan Reese, a grandson of the Rev. Dr. Frederick D. Reese, a civil rights activist, stated many Selma residents, together with foot troopers from the motion who’re nonetheless dwelling, wouldn’t take into account a reputation change until it had been inclusive. Dr. Reese, who died in 2018, was a member of the Dallas County Voters League, one of many native teams that organized the 1965 voting rights marches in Selma.
“All of the issues my grandfather did — was born in Selma, raised in Selma, labored in Selma — I don’t really feel like his identify ought to go on the bridge, as a result of I perceive it was a collective of individuals to make that scenario occur,” stated Mr. Reese, the chief govt of a basis bearing his grandfather’s identify.
The bridge, which crosses the Alabama River, was devoted in 1940 and named for Pettus, a lawyer and United States senator who was additionally a embellished Accomplice basic and a frontrunner of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. In 2015, a decision to rename the bridge was defeated within the Alabama Home of Representatives.
Consultant Terri Sewell, Democrat of Alabama, stated in a press release that though she understood the need to honor Mr. Lewis’s legacy, a call to rename the bridge ought to be made domestically in Selma.
“As a daughter of Selma, I perceive the complexities surrounding the renaming of the bridge, and whereas I personally can consider no higher identify than that of John Lewis, I in the end imagine the Selma group ought to resolve who it’s named after,” Ms. Sewell stated.
In a press release during which he addressed the lack of Mr. Lewis, his longtime pal and colleague, Consultant James Clyburn referred to as for the bridge to be named after Mr. Lewis.