An online petition started last week calls for renaming the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma for U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights activist from Alabama who was among those beaten at the bridge while marching for voting rights on “Bloody Sunday,” March 7, 1965.

Lewis announced on Dec. 29 he is battling stage four pancreatic cancer. Brenda Jones, communications director for Lewis, said Lewis did not have any immediate comment on the effort. Lewis was born the son of sharecroppers on Feb. 21, 1940, outside Troy. He is now a Democratic congressman representing Georgia’s 5th District, and is in his 17th term, having served since 1987. His district includes much of north Atlanta.

The petition to rename the bridge for Lewis began circulating Jan. 9 and as of Wednesday morning, Jan. 15, had 4,275 signatures.

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, who is from Selma, responded to the petition with the following statement:

“My friend and mentor, Congressman John Lewis, deserves all the praise and recognition for being the beloved civil rights leader that he is. While I understand and respect the movement to rename the bridge in Selma in his honor, I also believe it to be counterproductive. While a magnanimous gesture, such a symbolic effort, at this moment, when John is in the fight of his life, is not what he needs. I urge us all to band together in support of his recovery.

“The best way we can honor John is by rededicating ourselves to restoring the full protections of the VRA (Voting Rights Act) of 1965 and fighting to get H.R. 4, the Voting Rights Advancement Act, signed into law. Renaming the bridge in Selma is thoughtfully symbolic, but passing a law that protects the rights of all Americans to vote is the ultimate action that furthers the legacy of Congressman John Lewis.”

The current petition is not the first effort to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge, which bears the name of a former Confederate brigadier general, U.S. senator and Democratic Party leader who became a grand dragon in the Ku Klux Klan in 1887, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

In 2015, an effort to rename the bridge the “Journey for Freedom” Bridge got more than 180,000 petition signatures and a resolution passed the Alabama senate. It never made it out of a House committee for a vote, so it died at the end of the legislative session.

Sewell also opposed the effort to rename the bridge in 2015. “I am strongly opposed to changing the name of the Edmund Pettus Bridge,” she said in a statement released at the time. “The historical irony is an integral part of the complicated history of Selma — a city known for its pivotal role in Civil War and the civil rights movement. The bridge is an iconic symbol of the struggle for voting rights in America, and its name is as significant as its imposing structure. Changing the name of the bridge would change the course of history and compromise the historical integrity of the voting rights movement. As inheritors of the legacy surrounding the historical events that took place in Selma, we must safeguard that history — good and bad and resist attempts to rewrite it.”