SELMA, Ala. — A large crowd has gathered in Selma, Alabama, 50 years after the historic march for voting rights.
Thousands of people will cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge Sunday as a part of the Bloody Sunday 50th anniversary commemoration.
Sunday morning, a large crowd crossed the bridge with another goal in mind – to change the name of the bridge.
The group “Students Unite” says blacks had no say so in naming the bridge, and it's named after someone who didn't believe in equality for all.
“It's not a black thing. It's not a white thing. It's an American thing,” said one student
Hundreds of students from across the country crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in protest of the name.
They say the name doesn't represent love and peace.
“The name is hate. Not the bridge. The bridge does not symbolize hate, but the name does,” said pastor Ronald Smith.
The students say they've already collected 150,000 signatures on Change.org.
They say they want to change the name to something that represents their future.
Channel 2’s Tom Jones was the only TV reporter on the bridge when students from all races formed a circle on the bridge.
“When they name the bridge, African-Americans did not have a say so in it,” Smith said.
The group asked people to join them in their fight to remove Pettus' name from the bridge. Pettus was a U.S. senator, confederate general and a grand dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan.
The students are asking for young people in every city to join them in their effort to get the name changed.
“I do think that they should change the name. I think that the name should reflect what the people have gone through to try and get it to a certain point,” said Atlanta resident Corey Washington.
Others argue that the name should remain so later generations won't forget what happened on the bridge.
The bridge is on a federal highway and a national historic landmark, so some say it won't be easy to change the name.
WSBTV
