January 23, 1957

Four members of the Ku Klux Klan forced African-American Willie Edwards Jr. to jump 125 feet to his death from the Tyler-Goodwin Bridge near Montgomery. The Klansmen abducted the 24-year-old deliveryman on his way to work after mistaking him for another man they believed was dating a white woman. Fishermen found his body three months later. In 1976, one of the Klansmen, Raymond Britt Jr., confessed to the murder, but two attempts at indictment failed due to the lack of a specific cause of death. In 1993, a second Klansmen named Henry Alexander also confessed to the murder, but no further indictments were made.

Read more at the Equal Justice Initiative.

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.