After Representative John Lewis died on Friday, millions have paid tribute to decades of Georgia Congress activism, fighting for social justice and voting rights. Many pointed to Lewis’s iconic leadership in the 1965 march that became known as Bloody Sunday, sparking a wave of support to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where peaceful protesters were attacked by police, in honor of Lewis .
Edmund Pettus was a brigadier general in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He later joined the Alabama Ku Klux Klan and rose to the level of the Great Dragon, according to the Smithsonian. Pettus also served in the US Senate from 1897 until his death on July 27, 1907.
A Change.org petition supporting the name change amassed thousands of signatures within a day after Lewis’s death. The petition was launched about a month ago and had obtained around 250,000 signatures before Lewis’s death. By Saturday night, the petitioners had received more than 437,000 signatures.
“It is time to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge to Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon who almost gave his life on that bridge,” wrote Michael Starr Hopkins, who created the petition. “Edmund Pettus was a bitter racist, who did not deserve the honor bestowed on him. As we erase the long stain of intolerance in this country, we must also erase the names of men like Edmund Pettus.”
In March 7, 1965Lewis led 600 people across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, in a peaceful demonstration demanding the right to vote for blacks. At the foot of the bridge, protesters were attacked by state soldiers, who fired tear gas at the crowd and beat the protesters with night sticks. Lewis, who was 25 at the time, suffered a skull fracture after a police officer hit him.
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Police violence was widely publicized, and months later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Reflecting on the 55th anniversary of this year’s march, Lewis tweeted, “We were beaten, gassed, and trampled by horses. I thought I saw death. I thought I was going to die.”
Paul McCartney tweeted his support for renaming the bridge in Lewis’s honor, saying the Georgia congressman was “a great leader who fought honestly and courageously for civil rights in the United States.”
Musician Stevie Van Zandt echoed McCartney’s statement, saying, “It should have happened while he was alive. Why would we have something named after the great dragon of the ku klux klan? It is way beyond me.”
Ava DuVernay, who directed the 2014 film “Selma” about the 1965 voting rights marches, tweeted her support for the petition last month.
She said the bridge should be “named after a hero” and “not an assassin,” and said the change is “behind schedule.”
Alabama Senator Doug Jones and Representative Terri Sewell have also expressed their support for the name change. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey, who the petition points to, has not commented on the petition.
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