CNN Opinion | This is the best way to honor John Lewis’ legacy

(CNN) – There is a bridge in Selma, Alabama, where the 25-year-old John Lewis nearly died during the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” march. This bridge, named after Edmund Pettus — a Confederate general and leader of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan — spans the reality of America’s racist foundations and the dream of a just country.

The bridge should have been renamed long ago. Pettus was a domestic terrorist who fought in a traitor army for the right to claim ownership of human beings. Children aren’t brought to Edmund Pettus Bridge to learn about him; families now make the pilgrimage to teach the next generation that men like him can and did lose. That while these men wielded hideous and violent power, there were very brave people who linked arms and faced that violence together in their demand for justice. That heroes like Lewis put on his best $5 suit, along with his trench coat and backpack and fought for Black voting rights.  —more—