U.S.
Casper Star-Tribune, Ryan Dorgan / AP
Alabama senators on Wednesday took a step toward renaming the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, a historic site in the voting rights movement that also bears the name of a Ku Klux Klan officer.
Senators approved a resolution to rename it the Journey to Freedom Bridge. The bridge became a symbol of the fight for voting rights for black Americans after marchers were beaten by state troopers there in 1965.
The bridge is Selma's most notable landmark, but the association of the KKK with its name has drawn the ire of some in the majority black city. Pettus was a U.S. senator, a Confederate general and a KKK “grand dragon.”
The Alabama House of Representatives has yet to vote on the idea.
Lee Sentell of the Alabama Tourism Department said changing the bridge's name could threaten its status as a national historic landmark.
The Associated Press
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An Alabama home that served as civil rights protesters' base of operations before Bloody Sunday looks ready to collapse
Half a century after Selma march crackdown, Eric Holder says some jurisdictions still restrict Americans’ right to vote
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