There is still a wrong to be righted in Selma, Ala.
An online petition asking Alabama, Selma and the National Park Service to rename the Edmond Pettus Bridge has garnered nearly 150,000 signatures in two weeks, and it explains why quite succinctly:
“Fifty years ago, the Voting Rights Movement marched through Selma and over the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The marches across the bridge led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and today the bridge is a symbol of nonviolent victory for change!
“Unfortunately, the bridge is STILL named after a man who served as Grand Dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan, was a Confederate General, and was later elected as a United States Senator. …”
What bitter irony. How can it be that a landmark with so much significance for the civil rights movement still be named for a man who held one of the highest positions in the KKK?
The petition, at www.change.org/p/rename-selma-s-edmund-pettus-bridge-marchon, doesn’t suggest a new name, but one of the petition organizers says public discussions can lead to one that reflects the hope and victory that eventually did overcome “Bloody Sunday” — March 7, 1965.
Rename the bridge.