Saturday marks 50 years since "Bloody Sunday" -- the day peaceful demonstrators campaigning for civil rights were attacked by Alabama state troopers -- and the historic bridge at the center of the march from Selma to Montgomery is due for a name change, according to a new petition.
Students UNITE created a Change.org petition asking Alabama's leaders and the National Park Service to give a new moniker to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named after an Alabama senator and Grand Dragon of Alabama's Ku Klux Klan.
Brandi Hatter, outreach coordinator for Students UNITE, told HuffPost Live's Alyona Minkovski on Tuesday that the bridge has bared a name with associations of racism for far too long.
"It's time because it’s been 50 years and I would hate to wait another 50 years and it’d be the exact same," Hatter said. "If not now, then when?"
With Selma's 80 percent African-American population and a black mayor, the "name Edmund Pettus is far from what the city of Selma should honor," according to the petition.
Hatter listed some alternative names for the bridge, including Glory Bridge, Selma Bridge, Civil Rights Bridge and Freedom Bridge.
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