Edmund Winston Pettus (born July 6, 1821 – July 27, 1907) was an American lawyer and politician 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.
Why did Martin Luther King turn around on the bridge in Selma?
He did so as a symbolic gesture. LeRoy Collins, the governor of Florida, suggested he should first pray as he arrives on the bridge, and then turn around and lead all of the protesters back to Selma in an attempt to get a symbolic accomplishment of crossing the bridge while keeping everyone safe.