James Clyburn Joins Growing Calls to Rename Edmund Pettus Bridge in Honor of John Lewis

House Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) joined the call to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama in honor of civil rights champion John Lewis.

In a Meet The Press interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd, Clyburn mourned for Lewis’ loss since the Georgia congressman died over the weekend from his battle with pancreatic cancer. As Clyburn celebrated Lewis’ legacy and called for a bill to restore the Voting Rights Act in his honor, Todd asked Clyburn for his thoughts on the public demand for a name change to the bridge.

His answer:

I think I would talk a nice picture of that bridge with Pettus’ name on it, put it in a museum somewhere, dedicate it to the Confederacy, and then rename that bridge. Repaint it and redecorate it the John R. Lewis Bridge.

Lewis was prominently involved in the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965, during which his skull was fractured when state troopers attacked him and other peaceful protesters marching for civil rights. By contrast, Pettus was a Confederate general and a Ku Klux Klan leader, so Clyburn argued that it would be fitting to name the bridge after Lewis instead.

“Edmund Pettus was a grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan,” he said. “Take his name off that bridge and replace it with a good man, John Lewis, the personification of the goodness of America, rather than to honor someone who disrespected individual freedoms.”

Watch above, via NBC.