In Memorium: John Lewis

EDMUND PETTUS.....YOU MEMBER HIM SURELY  

 
Well, maybe.  It takes a true Civil War scholar to be sure, but he was "a senior Confederate officer," a slavery advocate, an Alabama US senator for ten years, and the Grand Dragon of the KKK.  So Alabama honored him by naming a bridge for him at Selma.


Fast forward to March 7, 1965.  A totally non-violent protest march for black voting rights, is peacefully heading  to Montgomery for a rally. All went well until they reached Selma. There, on the Edmund Pettus bridge, state and local police violently broke up the march, and in the process clubbed one of its leaders, John Lewis, so badly that he nearly died of a fractured skull.  The true horror of this uncalled for event can be seen in the old black and white TV newsreels which have been playing the last few days.


Fast forward again. John Lewis is now a nationally recognized civil rights leader, a top aide to Dr. Martin Luther King, and for 30 years a US Congressman  from Georgia until he died from cancer last week. Dubbed "the conscience of the House," his role was to move America toward fulfilling the promise of our democracy for ALL its citizens. If  Alabama has a shred of decency left, it will rename that bridge the John Lewis bridge.


And it won't have to pull any statues down.

I'm just sayin'...