The first of a six-day celebration of the late civil rights activist and Democratic congressman, Representative John Lewis, began on Saturday, with his body first presented in his hometown of Troy and then traveling to Selma, Ala.
“Selma Greets Congressman John Lewis” was expected from 6 to 8 pm Central Time. After the service, held at Brown Chapel AME Church, Lewis will remain at rest, which is open to the public.
Lewis, also known as “the Trojan boy,” who was a voting rights activist and called to “the conscience of the United States Congress,” was remembered during a public funeral at the University of Troy on Saturday by the morning.
The civil rights activist died at age 80 on July 17 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
JOHN LEWIS CELEBRATION OF LIFE BEGINS IN ALABAMA: THE SIX-DAY TRIP BEGINS IN TROY BEFORE GOING TO SELMA
Troy Mayor Jason Reeves praised Lewis’s strength in “confronting Alabama state soldiers” during the Civil Rights movement.
“And now Alabama state soldiers will lead his body through this state as we celebrate his life,” Reeves said earlier this week when Lewis’s body was delivered before the memorial, “A service celebrating ‘The Boy from Troy.’ “
Her coffin was accompanied by a ceremonial military guard and covered with an American flag.
Lewis remained a civil rights icon during the George Floyd protests that erupted in May.
The late congressman issued a statement at the time expressing his deepest regret for the men and women who still suffer from systemic racism in the United States.
“My fellow citizens, this is a special moment in our history. Just as people of all faiths and non-religions, and all backgrounds, creeds, and colors came together decades ago to fight for equality and justice in a peaceful, orderly, and non-violent way, we must do it again, “Lewis wrote in that moment. .
Lewis, an activist during the 1960s, was arrested for using a “white toilet” in 1961; In late May, he told protesters that he understood his pain.
“I know your pain, your anger, your feeling of despair and hopelessness,” Lewis tweeted. “Justice, in fact, has been denied for too long. Riots, looting and burning are not the way. Organize. Show. Sit in. Get up. Vote. Be constructive, not destructive.
More than 60 years ago, in 1958, Lewis met Martin Luther King Jr. at the age of 18; He had the ambition to attend an all-white university.
“He worked a lifetime to help others and make the world a better place to live,” Lewis Grant’s brother said Saturday before sharing a memory that his brother had sworn in Congress.
“What were you thinking?” Grant asked him later.
“I was thinking this is a long way from the Alabama cotton fields,” Lewis replied.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Lewis served 17 years from the 5th District of Georgia in the United States House of Representatives.
His body will be buried Sunday at 10 a.m. at the State Capitol in Montgomery, after being carried across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, marking the same route that the civil rights activist marched in 1965.
