Edmund Pettus and "The Bridge"

I love Alabama. I was born in Birmingham. I was raised in Alexander City. I attended Benjamin Russell High School and Auburn University. I was there during the Civil Rights Movement. I was one of the children integrating the schools for the first time. I saw George Wallace elected four times, the fourth time by somehow collecting a majority of the Black vote. One of my favorite songs is “Sweet Home Alabama”. Me and my fellow Alabamians are family. Just like any family, we don’t all like each other, but we’re honest about that. Like family, we have the right to criticize each other, correct each other. We have family secrets we don’t discuss in public, crazy uncles and cousins we try to keep out of public view and discussions. We have issues that divide us, and for some of us, there are irreconcilable differences. For many of us, the disputes were too bitter, the crazy relatives too embarrassing to allow us to remain in the beautiful state we love, so we leave to live our lives in other places, but our hearts remain in Alabama.

The place that I found was the great and beautiful state of Maryland. I have been here since 1984, and chances are I will be here forever. However, Alabama is never too far outside my conscious thoughts. Usually I am thinking of Auburn, and the football Tigers. Sometimes, other, more controversial issues will take my mind back home. It might be a friend visiting the state for the first time, asking me where to go or what to see, or asking the inevitable question, “What was it really like during the sixties”? Every once in a while it will be a long lost friend trying to re-connect via Linked-In or Facebook. Recently, it was the incredible movie “Selma”, invoking memories of the fight for the Voting Rights Act, “Bloody Sunday”, and the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

“The Bridge” has become a symbol of the Civil Rights Movement, a symbol as powerful as any other. I am confident that most of the people of the world have no idea who Edmund Pettus is. Most people have no idea why “The Bridge” was named for him. Every time I see the bridge, (and recently I have been seeing it constantly) I am embarrassed for my state, and for my nation. I ask myself what the hell were they thinking when they decided to name that bridge after Edmund Pettus?

Edmund Pettus was a confederate general. Since he was captured by the Union Army on three separate occasions, and given back to the confederates each time in exchange for Union soldiers, it is safe to say he was not a very good one. Before the Civil War, he was a lieutenant in the US Army, which technically makes him guilty of treason. Of course, Abraham Lincoln pardoned all of the surviving confederate soldiers that agreed to swear allegiance to the Union. I will assume Pettus swore allegiance. More troubling and unacceptable for me is the fact that after the war Pettus became a grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. That makes him a domestic terrorist, not only participating in unspeakable crimes of terror against Alabama’s people of color, but leading and directing those acts as well.

On March 7, 1965 one of the most infamous events in American history occurred on “The Bridge”. This “Bloody Sunday” occurred when African Americans were attacked by Alabama State troopers and klansmen while trying to stage a march from Selma, to Montgomery. The violent, sadistic, riveting images were witnessed coast to coast on live television, and was the moment that awakened the consciousness of many Americans to the righteousness of the cause of equal voting rights for all of America’s citizens.

Most Alabamians would agree today that all Americans, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or economic status should be able to vote freely and without fear or interference. Most would agree that what occurred on “The Bridge” on “Bloody Sunday” was regrettable. Most would agree that the title of “grand dragon” of the ku klux klan is not an honorable one.

The Alabama River is a beautiful, scenic river, flowing spaghetti-like from its mouth at Mobile Bay, through Selma where it meets with the Cahaba and heads east through the state capital in Montgomery, where it splits into the Coosa and Tallapoosa Rivers. “The Bridge” allows Route 80 from Montgomery to cross the Alabama River into the city of Selma. It is a stately, impressive, arch bridge that opened in 1940. It is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, and also as a U.S. National Historic Landmark. Its name is emblazoned in large letters on the arch, above the highway below. Proudly. Unmistakably. It is literally impossible for the thousands of people visiting Selma as a result of its historical significance to miss.

What the hell were they thinking?

Edmund Pettus was a sub-standard confederate general, grand dragon of the ku klux klan, domestic terrorist, murdering, son of a bitch. Were he alive, he would take credit for the thousands of lynching’s that occurred in Alabama during his reign. He would take pride in the hangings, cross burnings designed to terrorize, people burned alive, and brutal enforcement of “Black Codes” and “Jim Crow” laws that made “Bloody Sunday” necessary for this country to realize just how vicious Alabama could be towards its citizens of color.

Is this someone that Alabama and America should be honoring?

I want the name of “The Bridge” to be changed. I have no doubt that the majority of Alabamians and Americans, if presented with the facts, would agree.

Until another name is emblazoned on the arch above Highway 80 leading into Selma, it will continue to be “The Bridge” to me.