Who is Edmund Pettus

[watsup1000]

We remember that recently deceased civil rights hero John Lewis was brutally beaten during a march in Selma AL on the Edmund Pettis Bridge by a white mob that included the local sheriff and local police. The incident became known as Bloody Sunday. So who is Edmund Pettis and why was he honored by having a bridge named after him?

Edmund Winston Pettus (born July 6, 1821 – July 27, 1907) was an American politician who represented Alabama in the United States Senate from 1897 to 1907. He previously served as A SENIOR OFFICER IN THE CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY who commanded infantry in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. After the war, HE WAS POLITICALLY ACTIVE IN THE KU KLUX KLAN, SERVING AS THE GRAND DRAGON.

During the Mexican–American War in 1846–48, Pettus served as a lieutenant with the Alabama Volunteers, and after hostilities he moved to California, WHERE HE PARTICIPATED IN THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF THE YUKIS AND OTHER NATIVE AMERICANS.

Caroline Randall Williams has claimed that Pettus is her great-great-grandfather, because he fathered her Great-Grandfather Will BY RAPING HIS AFRICAN-AMERICAN MOTHER; she stated, "The black people I come from were owned and raped by the white people.

In 1877, during the final year of Reconstruction, PETTUS WAS NAMED GRAND DRAGON OF THE ALABAMA KU KLUX KLAN.

And there you have it. That is the sort of "heroes" who the South honored by naming local structures after them.

TAKE DOWN THE STATUES AND RENAME THE BRIDGES!!!!!!!!!

[Pio1980]

There are those in the movement that say the name should remain as context to enhance the historical pivotal consequences of the violent suppression of the march that ended there on that bridge on what became known as " Bloody Sunday".
In this case, the exception is worthy of consideration.

[Mark B]

Lovely guy. Reminds me of Andy Jackson.