Edmund Pettus was born in 1821 in Alabama as the youngest of nine children. He was trained as a lawyer. He served as an officer in the Mexican-American War and later as a Confederate Officer in the American Civil War. He was a strong believer in slavery.
During the Civil War, he was captured and released several times. Following the war, President Andrew Johnson pardoned him. After the war, he went back to practicing law in Selma, Alabama. He became active in politics and became the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama. This raised his profile in the racist Alabama Senate which at the time selected the U.S. Senators.
Throughout his career, Pettus remained devoted to slavery and its racist policies. He died in 1907 at the age of 86. In 1940, a bridge across the Alabama River was named for him. That bridge has now become a civil rights landmark. For a man who was racist his entire life, it is ironic that his name is now associated with an event that changed how many Americans thought about civil rights.
In 1965, civil rights marchers walking from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama were crossing the bridge when they were confronted by state police and the KKK. Marchers were beaten with batons and gassed. The national attention that came about from the violence inflicted on the marchers led to major civil rights legislation.
On the 30th anniversary of what became known as Bloody Sunday, Representative John Lewis who had been beaten during the original march returned to remark on the progress that had been made in the 30 years since the march. On the 40th anniversary, 10,000 people reenacted the march across the bridge. In the runup to the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Andrew Young, a prominent figure in the civil rights movement, carried the Olympic torch across the bridge. On the 50th anniversary, President Barack Obama, former President George W. Bush, John Lewis, along with 40,000 others were on hand to commemorate the significance of Bloody Sunday. When John Lewis passed away, his body was transported across the bridge in a caisson.
There have been calls to rename the bridge, but many in the civil rights movement have resisted. The irony of history is that what was once celebrated became shameful in future years. The historical symbolism became reversed. Edmund Pettus is known today for a bridge that was named after him for his racist views, but in fact, has become a historic monument to the civil rights movement.
Just imagine those in public life today who are celebrated by a segment of society who will forever become symbols of shame as we look back at these times. That’s the irony of history.
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“We name things after honorable Americans to commemorate their legacies. That bridge is named after a treasonous American who cultivated and prospered from systems of degradation and oppression before and after the Civil War.” – Caroline Williams (great-great-granddaughter of Edmund Pettus