Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama

The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, holds the dichotomous and, at times, violent
legacy of race in the American South. It memorialises Edmund Pettus, a leader of the White
supremacist Ku Klux Klan, and it was a site of pivotal Civil Rights Movement protests in the 1960s.
Two petitions to rename the bridge and shed the White supremacist allusion have gained visibility
in the US; however, neither the 2015 nor the 2020 petition led to the legal change in the name of
the bridge. The 2020 petition was primarily sparked by the death of Representative John Lewis, a
prominent Civil Rights Movement organiser who protested on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in the
1960s. This 2020 petition inspired a renaming resolution that saw initial success in the Alabama
Legislature, but the resolution eventually faltered, allowing the Edmund Pettus Bridge’s name to
persevere.