House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Monday that the House of Representatives will maintain a moment of silence in honor of the late Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis, who died on Friday.
Pelosi, D-Calif., In a letter from “Dear Colleague,” also announced that the Georgia House delegation will present a “duel resolution” for Lewis, whose legacy is honored from every corner of American politics.
“We are very saddened by the loss of our colleague,” Pelosi said in a statement along with the note on the moment of silence. “All of us who serve with John know that he always worked on the angels’ side. He is with them now. May he rest in peace.”
JOHN LEWIS., ICON OF CIVIL RIGHTS, CONGRESS FOR 33 YEARS, DEAD AT 80
Lewis, a Democrat from Georgia, has been a giant of the American civil rights movement since the 1960s when he marched with Martin Luther King, Jr., and addressed the famous March in Washington from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He died after a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer.
Lewis was the son of Alabama sharecroppers and was involved in decades of activism before being elected to Congress in 1987 and living to see the first black president when Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009.
“When we were organizing voter registration campaigns, going to Freedom Rides, sitting, coming here to Washington for the first time, being arrested, going to jail, beaten, I never thought, I never dreamed, the possibility that an African American would one day be elected President of the United States, ”Lewis wrote shortly before Obama took office.
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Pelosi, in her note, also mentioned that the Lewis family will wait until after funeral services for the Rev. CT Vivian, also a prominent civil rights activist who died on Friday, to announce how they will honor Lewis. He added that services for Lewis will be affected by the coronavirus.
“It was the sermon he preached. He did what he said he would do and inspired others to do the same,” Representative Al Green, a Texas Democrat, said of Lewis speaking on the floor of the House before the moment of silence. Green also said he had gone to jail after getting into “good trouble” with Lewis, from being arrested while protesting multiple times, and asked that the House pass a reaffirmation of the Voting Rights Act.
Georgia Democrats are currently in a time crisis to decide who will cover the shoes of the civil rights giant. On July 20, 2020, the deadline is 4 pm for the party to decide which of the 131 applicants to fill Lewis’s seat will appear on the ballot in November.
Chad Pergram and Kelly Phares of Fox News contributed to this report.
