Push to rename Edmund Pettus Bridge after the late Rep. John Lewis takes step forward

ATLANTA — The push to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama after the late Rep. John Lewis is moving forward.

Lewis was beaten on the bridge as he marched for voting rights in 1965 in what has come to be known as Bloody Sunday.

People in the Selma community and civil rights leaders got together for a virtual town hall Friday night to talk about it.

Channel 2′s Justin Wilfon found there are still very mixed feelings about making the Edmund Pettus Bridge the John Lewis Bridge.

“When we start to rewrite that history, the history will be gone, and I don’t think history would be better for it,” one speaker said.

“If Selma chose to define itself more by its future than its past, I would be happy about that, said civil rights activist Jo Ann Bland.

Since the death of the civil rights icon, more than 500,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the bridge to be named after Lewis.

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On Friday night, a group called Selma Matters organized the town hall. The co-founder of the group, Collins Pettaway III, told Wilfon he now supports renaming the bridge.

“When you look at what is happening now and in the times you have to just simply understand that it is time for Edmund Pettus’s name to come down,” Pettaway said.

Pettus was a confederate general and KKK leader, but many in town fear removing his name from the bridge could hurt the town’s struggling economy.

“It has to be a name that doesn’t cause us to lose tourism,” Bland said.

Some believe that name could be John Lewis.

“We still want people to support Selma no matter what decision the community makes,” minister Paul Hughes said.

The Selma Matters group says they will now start collecting data throughout that city, almost like a poll, to see if there’s broad community support for renaming the bridge.

Rep. John Lewis honored by 3 presidents during funeral for civil rights icon Former presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush attended the funeral, with Obama delivering the eulogy.

Cox Media Group