Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama

Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama
Edmund Pettus Bridge
Alabama Historic Highway marker, Edmund Pettus Bridge

Dublin Core

Title

Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama

Description

Located in Selma, Alabama, the Edmund Pettus Bridge was built in 1940 crossing the Alabama River and on the U.S. Route 80. It is named after the last senator who was Confederate general and Grand Dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. Edmund Pettus was born in Limestone County, Alabama on July 6, 1821. Although named after a Confederate, the bridge became a location for a march led by John Lewis who was the leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee . On March 7, 1965, over 600 protestors tried to march out of Selma for voting rights, but they were met with violence by state troopers, making everyone to retreat. The violence on the bridge was televised and known as “Bloody Sunday.” After the incident, Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., created a successful march across the bridge as he was able to get federal protection. On March 7, 2015, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, former President Barack Obama and senator John Lewis along with other members of Congress marched on the bridge. A student-run social justice organization, Students Unite, collected signatures to rename the bridge. There is currently a project to rename it to the John Lewis Bridge as he almost lost his life marching for civil rights at the bridge.

In January 2021, lawmakers in Alabama proposed legislation that would allow the people of Selma to rename the controversial bridge. In May 2021, the state legislature in Alabama passed a law renaming the highway that includes the bridge to the “The John R. Lewis Memorial 10 Highway,” which became law days after the 60th anniversary of the first freedom ride Lewis went on.

In 2022 an Alabama bill was passed to alter the name to Edmund Pettus Bridge Foot Soldiers.

In 2023, the Selma 58th Anniversary Jubilee occurred with President Joe Biden walking the bridge in remembrance of Bloody Sunday.

Creator

Henson Stephenson

Source

Desmond-Harris, Jenée. "Inside the Fight to Strip a KKK Leader's Name from Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge." Vox. March 07, 2015. https://www.vox.com/2015/3/7/8164801/selma-edmund-pettus-bridge-kkk.

Weingroff, Richard F. "The Road to Civil Rights." https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/highwayhistory/road/road.pdf?CFID=148114539&CFTOKEN=d2f451e4431ddaf-B9FE6734-D242-5476-932BC46884791728.

"Alabama: The Selma-to-Montgomery March (U.S. National Park Service)." National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/places/alabama-the-selmatomontgomery-march.htm.

"The John Lewis Bridge Project." The John Lewis Bridge Project. https://johnlewisbridge.com/.

“'Honor the Local People of Selma': Edmund Pettus Bridge Moves Closer to Being Renamed.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 22 Jan. 2021, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/honor-local-people-selma-edmund-pettus-bridge-moves-closer-being-n1254524.

Castronuovo, Celine. “Alabama State Legislature Passes Bill to Name Part of Highway after John Lewis.” TheHill, The Hill, 7 May 2021, https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/552393-part-of-alabama-highway-to-be-named-after-rep-john-lewis.

Date

1940

Contributor

Melanie Vigil, Joey Baum, Kevin Gomez

Language

English

Type

Bridge

Identifier

HIST 402A Fall 2020

Coverage

Selma, Alabama

Geolocation