A resident of a Texas city nearly 800 miles west of Chattanooga has begun an online petition to change the name of the Walnut Street Bridge to the Ed Johnson Memorial Bridge.
Johnson, a black man who was one of at least two people lynched on the bridge more than a century ago, was the subject of a 1999 book that detailed the case in which he was accused and convicted of raping a white woman but was taken from the jail by a mob and unceremoniously executed after the United States Supreme Court granted him a stay of execution in the case.
A memorial depicting the accused man and his two attorneys already has been planned for the south side of the bridge.
The Texas man, Joseph Malley, an attorney, recently uncovered the first photo seen of Johnson in 112 years and is researching the case for another book.
"Many people today avoid the bridge due to its history," he wrote in an email to Chattanooga City Council members. "Some are even scared to walk across the bridge. It would benefit your community, help reconciliation and unification if the Chattanooga City Council would initiate such a referendum and approve the name change."
We can only guess Malley hasn't been to the city much. Annually, thousands of white and black residents and visitors stroll across the span, which in 1993 was turned into a walking bridge. We're not sure about the talk in Dallas, but if anyone locally avoids the bridge because of something that happened in 1906, they haven't been vocal about it.
The Walnut Street Bridge has been the Walnut Street Bridge since it opened in 1891. No need exists to correct a name that has no connotation except the street with which it connects on its south side. Indeed, its fame in recent years as the Walnut Street Bridge came from the effort to transform it from a span for cars to what has been called one of the longest pedestrian bridges in the world. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Walnut Street Bridge in 1990.
It also is used by people of all races as the site of special fundraising events, weddings and as part of the route for road races, walks and marathons.
Among city council members, Chip Henderson told the Times Free Press he liked "the name just the way it is," while Russell Gilbert said he needed to talk to other council members before forming an opinion.
We don't believe it takes much discussion to form an opinion about a decision to prevent a bad case of heartburn for the city. Leave the Walnut Street Bridge the Walnut Street Bridge.