| Edmund Pettus Bridge | |
|---|---|
The central span of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 2010. |
|
| Carries | Motor vehicles, pedestrians |
| Crosses | Alabama River |
| Design | Through arch bridge |
| Total length | 1,248.1 feet (380.4 m) |
| Width | 42.3 feet (12.9 m) |
| Longest span | 250 feet (76 m) |
| Number of spans | 7 |
| Piers in water | 4 |
| Vertical clearance | 14.8 feet (4.5 m) |
| Construction begin | 1939 |
| Construction end | 1940 |
| Opened | May 25, 1940 |
| Daily traffic | 17,720 |
The Edmund Pettus Bridge is a bridge that carries U.S. Highway 80 across the Alabama River in Selma, Alabama. Built in 1940, it is named for Edmund Winston Pettus, a former Confederate brigadier general and U.S. Senator from Alabama. The bridge is a steel through arch bridge with a central span of 250 feet (76 m). It is famous as the site of the conflict of Bloody Sunday on March 7, 1965, when armed officers attacked peaceful civil rights demonstrators attempting to march to the state capital of Montgomery.
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Edmund Winston Pettus was born in Limestone County, Alabama, to John Pettus and Alice Taylor Winston in 1821. He graduated from a public high school and attended Clinton College. He then went on to Tuscumbia, Alabama, to study law and was admitted into the state's bar association in 1842. In 1844 he was elected to serve in the seventh Judicial Circuit of Alabama as a solicitor. From 1847-1849 he served as a lieutenant with the Alabama Volunteers during the Mexican–American War. From 1854 he served as a judge in the seventh Judicial Circuit of Alabama, until resigning in 1858. After resigning as judge he went back to Selma, Alabama where he went back to practicing law. Following the outbreak of the American Civil War he served with the 20th Regiment Alabama Infantry, eventually attaining the rank of brigadier general in 1863 and being assigned a command in the Army of Tennessee. Following the war he resumed his law practice in Selma. He was residing there when he was elected as a United States Senator from Alabama in 1897 and 1903. He died in 1907.[1]
In 1965 voting rights was a complicated issue. African Americans were being attacked for wanting to vote. In Selma, Alabama, voting rolls were 99% White and 1% African American.[2] The case of Jimmie Lee Jackson showed how African Americans were treated; as state troopers and other locals started a fight with some 400 hundred African American demonstrators, Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot in the stomach, and he died eight days later. As word reached the people, including Martin Luther King, Jr., a plan for a peaceful march on the state's capitol was made.[3] There were many acts just like this one that involved killings, and many more that involve economic and health problems.[4]
The days and months leading up to Bloody Sunday were very chaotic and stressful as blacks were being targeted by whites as they went to register to vote. Most blacks were laughed at or harassed, but some were even beaten or killed. The black registered voters were also hit hard economically, in addition to physical abuse. Some were refused federal food aid, some refused credit at local banks and stores, and some were fired from their jobs.[4] Growing unrest and activism resulted in the decision to have a peaceful march from Selma, to Montgomery, Alabama, to focus in a positive way the pain and anger of the innocent people being persecuted. This idea led the people to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. As the people came marching from Selma towards Montgomery they hit the Edmund Pettus Bridge and were attacked by police officers with tear gas and beaten by clubs. This bridge had a huge role in the fight for African American voting rights; Bloody Sunday and the other marches show that part of the bridge's history and why it is so well known.
Due to the events on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the many people who came to march walked away with a huge accomplishment. The Voting Rights Act made discriminatory voting practices illegal and put a stop to the persecution of the African Americans who had been working for the cause. Section 4 of the Act ended the requirement of literacy tests in six of the Southern states. These states included: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.[5] Section 5 stated that no one could make a change to their voting rules unless first authorized by a three-judge court, the District of Columbia, or by the Attorney General of the United States.[5]
Since 1965, many marches have commemorated the events of Bloody Sunday. On one such occasion, the 30th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, Rep. John Lewis, former president of SNCC and a prominent activist during the Selma to Montgomery marches, said, "It's gratifying to come back and see the changes that have occurred; to see the number of registered voters and the number of Black elected officials in the state of Alabama to be able to walk with other members of Congress that are African Americans." [6] Another notable day was the 40th reunion of Bloody Sunday, when over 10,000 people met to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge again. Among those 10,000 people was, again, Rep. John Lewis, who was one of the men attacked on Bloody Sunday.[7] Also, in 1996, the Olympic torch made its way across the bridge with its carrier, Andrew Young, and many public officials, to symbolize how far the South has come. When Young spoke at the AME Brown Chapel, as part of the torch ceremony, he said, "We couldn't have gone to Atlanta with the Olympic Games if we hadn't come through Selma a long time ago." [8]