Alabama lawmakers on Tuesday advanced legislation that would alter the name of Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge to honor those who were beaten on the bridge as they marched for civil rights in 1965, reports the Associated Press.
The Alabama Senate voted 23-3 for legislation that would change the official name to the “Edmund W. Pettus-Foot Soldiers Bridge.” However, the lettering on the famous bridge would remain unaltered. The name “Foot Soldiers” would be on a separate sign that would include a silhouette of the marchers.
The bill, dubbed the “Healing History Act,” now moves to the Alabama House of Representatives with three meeting days remaining in the legislative session. The bridge in 1940 was named after Pettus, a Confederate general and reputed Ku Klux Klan leader. However, 25 years later it became an enduring symbol of the civil rights movement after marchers were beaten by law enforcement officers on the bridge in 1965.
The melee became known as Bloody Sunday and helped lead to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“Not a single letter would be touched. It would stay intact in its historical context. And at the same time… honor the history that is there and the history that came out of it,” said state Sen. Malika Sanders-Fortier, a Democrat from Selma.
Through the years some have proposed changing the name of the bridge, including a push to name it for the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who grew up in Troy, Ala. The Georgia congressman was one of the demonstrators beaten on the bridge in 1965.
