A student-led organization called Students UNITE in Selma, Alabama, has started a petition to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The bridge is named after Pettus, who served as the Grand Dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan. The bridge was the site of the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” – the day members of the nonviolent Voting Rights Movement tried to march across the bridge but were met by state troopers with billy clubs, tear gas and cattle prods. The brutal demonstration was recreated for the film Selma.
Students UNITE has sent a letter to the Governor of Alabama, Mayor George Patrick Evans, and the National Park Service, requesting that the bridge be renamed. So far, 1,000 signatures have been collected within 24 hours. Learn more, here.
