Edmund Pettus Bridge

Two photos related to the bridge. One is plaque showing the bridge designer. The other historical marker photo notes what happened on 'Bloody Sunday'.

I read a story on the BBC news site a couple of days ago http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-31736316 where some group is circulating a petition to get the name of the bridge changed. However, the city leaders in Selma are not in favor of it and prefer to keep the name as it is so that present and future generations understand the significance of what happened there in 1965.

NHL Nomination Form Attached.

Attachment #1 (application/pdf; 1,531,100 bytes)

Boy I wish I had been able to visit this bridge during my SE USA last November. The hits to my website would have likely been huge with the nonstop television coverage... I see its the most-visited bridge on BridgeHunter yesterday.

Regarding the name, here is an interesting perspective. As a bridge that (although it has considerable engineering significance as a unique steel arch bridge) this bridge is undoubtedly most significant under NRHP Criterion A (Significant Events in History), specifically the Selma March. In 2013, the bridge was even raised to the highest and rarest historic designation available for a bridge, that of a National Historic Landmark. Regardless of what you think of the name, consider that this bridge has amazingly been nearly completely unaltered from its appearance during this significant event in history. Look at the historical imagery from the march. The bridge (for better or worse, with that name above) looks the same as it did during the march. If you were to change the name of the bridge (and thereby the name mounted on the bridge) that would break the museum-like preservation the bridge currently enjoys. Perhaps a better solution is to install interpretive signage beside the bridge that explains the irony of the name.

Patrick,

I see where you are coming from but the fact that the name raised your ire to the level that you were willing to think about it and write about it speaks volumes. To me, changing the name removes that thorn and the teaching moment. It sweeps it under the rug. By leaving the name it ensures people will not forget.

Maybe I'm idealistic in that way but to me the fact that the first march was stopped at the bridge and the second 'broke through' has tremendous symbolism.

Its interesting that we are discussing opposite courses of action yet agree on the reason/basis.

Regards,

Art S.

Yours can be a compelling point, ArtS, and I've at times been tempted by it, but history, and progress, are about more than irony and poignancy, in a moment, every fifty years.

Days, weeks and months from now, when people ask about the Pettus bridge, they will be told who it was named after. The ironic moment, the poignant one, will be less remembered and the honor given a vile scoundrel who exerted effort all his life to keep people enslaved and then to keep them from ever exercising their rights will remain memorialized, in large letters, on that bridge.

In school districts throughout the south, children are being educated at schools named during Jim Crow after scoundrels like Pettus and Nathan Bedford Forrest who worked hard and proudly to keep those students' ancestors under thumb or boot.

Progress is also about relegating the scoundrels to the pages of history and honoring, memorializing, those who struggled, who were beaten, and who died for the rights of all of us.

Patrick, there is a strong push to change the name. To me, the irony of the name combined with the bridge's significance to our history is important. In my opinion, changing the name strips a part of its history and reduces its poignancy.

Today's an important anniversary for this bridge, sadly still stuck with the name of a Klansman.