100 signatures reached
To: President Donald J. Trump
John Lewis Memorial Bridge
Rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge to the “John Lewis Memorial Bridge.”
Lewis was one of the 13 Freedom Riders who in 1961 were determined to ride from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans in an integrated fashion. At that time, states of the old Confederacy enforced laws prohibiting black and white riders from sitting next to each other on public transportation. Lewis and nonviolent Freedom Riders were beaten by angry mobs, arrested at times and taken to jail.
At 21 years old, Lewis was the first of the Freedom Riders to be assaulted in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He tried to enter a whites-only waiting room and two white men attacked him, injuring his face and kicking him in the ribs. Two weeks later Lewis joined a Freedom Ride that was bound for Jackson, "We were determined not to let any act of violence keep us from our goal.” Lewis was imprisoned for 40 days in the Mississippi State Penitentiary after participating in Freedom Rider activity in that state.
On “Bloody Sunday" March 7, 1965, Lewis and fellow activists led over 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. At that bridge, they were ordered to disperse by Alabama State Troopers. As the marchers stopped to pray, the police used tear gas and mounted troopers charged the demonstrators, beating them with night sticks. Lewis's skull was fractured and he bore scars on his head from the incident for the rest of his life.
The Edmund Pettus Bridge was built in 1940, and named after Edmund Winston Pettus, a former Confederate brigadier general, U.S. Senator, and grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.
Lewis was one of the 13 Freedom Riders who in 1961 were determined to ride from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans in an integrated fashion. At that time, states of the old Confederacy enforced laws prohibiting black and white riders from sitting next to each other on public transportation. Lewis and nonviolent Freedom Riders were beaten by angry mobs, arrested at times and taken to jail.
At 21 years old, Lewis was the first of the Freedom Riders to be assaulted in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He tried to enter a whites-only waiting room and two white men attacked him, injuring his face and kicking him in the ribs. Two weeks later Lewis joined a Freedom Ride that was bound for Jackson, "We were determined not to let any act of violence keep us from our goal.” Lewis was imprisoned for 40 days in the Mississippi State Penitentiary after participating in Freedom Rider activity in that state.
On “Bloody Sunday" March 7, 1965, Lewis and fellow activists led over 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. At that bridge, they were ordered to disperse by Alabama State Troopers. As the marchers stopped to pray, the police used tear gas and mounted troopers charged the demonstrators, beating them with night sticks. Lewis's skull was fractured and he bore scars on his head from the incident for the rest of his life.
The Edmund Pettus Bridge was built in 1940, and named after Edmund Winston Pettus, a former Confederate brigadier general, U.S. Senator, and grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.
Why is this important?
John Lewis is the real American hero and patriot. Rename the bridge!