Search Results - Pettus, Edmund Winston, 1821-1907

Edmund Pettus

Edmund Winston Pettus (July 6, 1821 – July 27, 1907) was an American lawyer, politician and military officer who represented Alabama in the United States Senate from 1897 to 1907. He served as a senior officer of the Confederate States Army, commanding infantry in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. After the war, he was Grand Dragon, or supreme leader of the Ku Klux Klan, that terrorized and often killed African-Americans.

The Edmund Pettus Bridge across the Alabama River in Selma, built in 1940, was named after him. According to ''Smithsonian'', "The bridge was named for him, in part, to memorialize his history, of restraining and imprisoning African-Americans in their quest for freedom after the Civil War". In 1965, the bridge became a landmark of the civil rights movement. Provided by Wikipedia