People gather at a make-shift memorial near the home of Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., Sunday, July 19, 2020, in Atlanta. Lewis, who died Friday at age 80, was the youngest and last survivor of the Big Six civil rights activists who organized the 1963 March on Washington, and spoke shortly before the group’s leader, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., gave his “I Have a Dream” speech to a vast sea of people. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 8:11 AM PT — Monday, July 20, 2020
South Carolina congressman James Clyburn (D) is calling for the Edmund Pettus Bridge to be renamed after late congressman John Lewis.
While to reporters Sunday, Clyburn said someone should take a picture of the bridge and put it in a museum dedicated to the confederacy.
The Democrat lawmaker believes the bridge should be renamed the “John R. Lewis Bridge.” The civil rights icon, who died Friday, walked across the bridge in Selma, Alabama in 1965 during a voting rights march.
“I believe that will make a statement for people in this country that do believe in that pledge, that vision of the country that’s in the last phrase of the pledge: with liberty and justice for all,” stated Clyburn.
The country lost a hero last night. The movement lost an icon. And I lost a personal friend.
But I do believe that as the sun set on John Lewis’s life last night, the sun rises on a movement that will never die. Thank you, John, rest in peace my brother. pic.twitter.com/t4C4qBYWrp
— James E. Clyburn (@WhipClyburn) July 18, 2020
Advocates who support renaming the bridge have started an online petition and have received more than 100,000 signatures.
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