U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell said Monday she is in favor of renaming the Edmund Pettus bridge in her hometown of Selma, Ala.
“There is no denying that Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge—the site where foot soldiers shed their blood in the name of equality and justice for all Americans—is a powerful symbol of the civil rights movement,” Sewell said in a statement.
More than 100,000 people have signed a petition to rename the bridge after Georgia Rep. John Lewis, a Democrat and civil rights leader who participated in the 1965 march across the Selma bridge where he and other activists were attacked.
“There’s a righteous irony there, sweet justice, that a bridge named after a man who inflamed hatred, racial hatred is now known worldwide as a symbol of equality and justice,” Sewell told AL.com.
“In the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the subsequent protests and outcry across the nation, there is no denying that this moment is different; our brothers and sisters – black and white – are crying out for bold change,” Sewell said.
