Selma, Ala., Officials Oppose Renaming
Bridge for Civil Rights Icon John Lewis
Associated Press,
by
Jay Reeves
Original Article
Posted By: NorthernDog,
7/21/2020 5:04:47 PM
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Growing calls nationally to honor the late Rep. John Lewis by putting his name on the Alabama bridge where he and other voting rights demonstrators were beaten 55 years ago are being met with resistance in Selma, the majority Black city where “Bloody Sunday” occurred. Some say renaming the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the Georgia congressman who died Friday would dishonor local activists who spent years advocating for civil rights before Lewis arrived in town in the 1960s. Others fear tourism would be hurt if the Pettus name — which is known worldwide yet belonged to a
Reply 1 - Posted by:
stablemoney 7/21/2020 5:16:54 PM (No. 486189)
We don't need 80% of the road signs named after 13% of the population.
23 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Proud Texan 7/21/2020 5:27:41 PM (No. 486201)
The bridge looks like it may need replace. Name it after Lewis with a big ceremony and the demolish that night with a bonfire and big celebration, then replace it with a bridge with no name.
8 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
M Stuart 7/21/2020 5:28:38 PM (No. 486204)
Some time in the past John Lewis might have been admirable, but the only times I remember of him have been of him with a sour face, grumpy, irritable, against Whitey, pro-anarchy.
This other dud they talk about, I have never seen.
13 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
JL80863 7/21/2020 5:30:29 PM (No. 486207)
"Growing calls"? The only call I hear is from this POS fake news service.
13 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Urgent Fury 7/21/2020 5:34:18 PM (No. 486209)
Growing calls probably on Twitter, from whence the media gets 70% of its stories.
10 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
DARling 7/21/2020 5:35:11 PM (No. 486211)
I hate the thought of renaming just about anything. When Barry Goldwater died, there was a big push to rename Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix after him. There was a huge outcry because people thought the airport already had a great name. I'm thankful the name change didn't happen. Then Cape Canaveral was renamed Cape Kennedy, but at some point, reverted back to being Cape Canaveral again because the locals did not approve of the name change to honor the late president.
Name changes are not only confusing, but can be costly, with maps, publicity pamphlets, etc. having to be discarded and remade with the new names.
Selma was a group effort, not just about John Lewis. Leave well enough alone.
11 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
john56 7/21/2020 5:40:14 PM (No. 486216)
Maybe the bridge should be named after John Lewis.
But the time to name things after people is a few years after their passing. If their contributions in life were so great that they're remembered 5 or 10 years after their passing, well, yeah, it's time to name something after them.
Otherwise, it's partly grief and emotion taking over. Or you're like Robert KKK Byrd, and you name everything after you for vanity and to be sure that the locals know that you brought home the bacon.
1 person likes this.
re #6 I'm still peeved about renaming Idlewild.
9 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
MickTurn 7/21/2020 5:59:36 PM (No. 486241)
He was not down for the full civil rights fight, he showed up to march in front of the victory parade like a typical politician. No Bridge for YOU!
6 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
SkeezerMcGee 7/21/2020 6:05:00 PM (No. 486251)
I'm disgusted regarding the fawning over this hyper-partizan clown. He;s the guy who claimed he was spit on while falsely walking to the Capitol Building some years ago. What I remember most about this slug were the several times he would spew vitriol as a member of this or that Committee. Because he was certain to get re-elected he could assert ANYTHING without fear of any serious retribution. He was the opposite of the type of individual envisioned by the founding fathers to be elected to federal public office.
9 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
bad-hair 7/21/2020 6:05:45 PM (No. 486254)
Sounds pretty reasonable to me. If we're gonna bich about revising history let's let some history live. For all his later years Lewis was one person who stood up with MLK and took the hit. If the present generation chooses to dishonor their names, shame on then shame on the "present" generation.
0 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
AGGW 7/21/2020 6:25:43 PM (No. 486271)
Agree with #6, especially
“Selma was a group effort, not just about John Lewis. Leave well enough alone.“
3 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
udanja99 7/21/2020 6:57:15 PM (No. 486287)
Lewis was so stupid that he joined the very party which bashed in his head. I wonder what the payoff was.
3 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
coyote 7/21/2020 7:40:34 PM (No. 486323)
It took courage to march over that bridge, but Lewis was a lousy congressman, don't name stuff for him.
2 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
cor-vet 7/21/2020 7:51:11 PM (No. 486330)
I'd recommend naming a 5k road race after him, but he was the slowest runner in the effort to get away in Selma, and that's why his head was so full of knots and craters. I was at Ft. Bragg (Pope Field) at that time and we were ferrying troops to help guard the march, and were working thru flights in the poring rain. The om
only airman in my squadron that didn't get out of the flight-line van and direct planes was the one bLACK airman. In hindsight, it was a mistake on the governments part. Look what we have now!
1 person likes this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
lakerman1 7/21/2020 8:22:26 PM (No. 486349)
#6, when LBJ became president, he and others went on a Kennedy naming spree.
But when he changed the name of a municipality, Cape Canaveral, to Cape Kennedy, he quickly learned that he lacked thew authority to make the change.
The actual launch site was named for Kennedy, and that was OK.
I say the Selma bridge should be named Dunham-obama, because Barack,, during the 2008 campaign, said his parents met during the march on Selma in 1965.
Barack was born in 1961.
1 person likes this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Strike3 7/21/2020 10:20:58 PM (No. 486420)
This could get ugly. How about we negotiate by finding a nice horse on a Texas ranch and naming it's hind end after Lewis.
1 person likes this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
PChristopher 7/21/2020 11:56:54 PM (No. 486472)
Where he and others were beaten 55 years ago.....by Democrats. Don't leave out THAT little point.
3 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Smart11344 7/22/2020 1:39:30 PM (No. 487126)
Stop these nonsense of remaning anything and everything that isn't black. What did Aunt Jemima or Uncle Ben or the handsome chef on a box of Cream of Wheat do to you? They are all black, so I guess all black lives don't matter. Sounds like Animal Farm. And to think when I was about 5 years old I thought black cows gave chocolate milk!
0 people like this.
Reply 20 - Posted by:
Smart11344 7/22/2020 1:40:30 PM (No. 487129)
Re-name all these "offensive sign" DEAD END.
0 people like this.
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Comments:
Lewis was one of many hundreds on the bridge that day. Local residents are puzzled and hurt that he claimed all the accolades for 'Bloody Sunday'.