Lewis’s body will be in the state at the US Capitol Rotunda, where an invitation-only arrival ceremony will be held at 1:30 pm ET on Monday, House Speaker Nancy announced. Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell last week.
Following the Capitol Rotunda ceremony, a public outdoor visit will be conducted as a safety measure during the coronavirus pandemic.
Members of the public will be able to pay tribute to the late Georgia Democrat at certain times later on Monday and throughout Tuesday, as his body is in state at the top of the steps on the eastern front of the Capitol. . The public will be allowed to present the past in the East Plaza of the Capitol. Members of the public will be asked to adhere to the social distancing and DC mask guidelines.
Lying in the state is a form of ceremonial tribute reserved to honor the lives of America’s most distinguished and distinguished statesmen and military leaders.
Lewis, who served as the representative of the United States in Georgia’s 5th Congressional District for more than three decades, was widely viewed as a moral conscience of Congress due to his incarnation of nonviolent civil rights struggle for decades.
He died at the age of 80 after a six-month battle with cancer, a loss that sparked a torrent of pain and tributes to his life and legacy across the country.
Lewis, the son of sharecroppers, was a leading figure in the civil rights movement.
Angered by the injustice of the Jim Crow South, he launched what he called “good trouble” with organized protests and sit-ins. In the early 1960s, he was a freedom rider, challenging segregation at interstate bus terminals throughout the south and in the nation’s capital.
At age 25, Lewis helped lead a voting rights march on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where he and other protesters were greeted by heavily armed state and local police officers who attacked them with sticks, fracturing Lewis’s skull. The images of that “Bloody Sunday” shocked the nation and spurred support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, enacted by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
The plans for Lewis’s body to remain in the state at the United States Capitol are one of many events planned in honor and commemoration of the late congressman.
A celebration of Lewis’ life took place over the course of six days beginning the weekend of July 25 with events in Alabama, Georgia, and Washington, DC. Lewis’s body will be accompanied by a military honor guard, even when he is in the state in the nation’s capital.
After the events in Washington, DC, Lewis will remain in the state at the Georgia State Capitol on Wednesday.
On Thursday, there will be a “celebration of life” at the Ebenezer Baptist Church Horizon Sanctuary in Atlanta, followed by a burial at the South-View Cemetery.
Due to the pandemic, the family is also encouraging people to host “John Lewis Virtual Love Events” to watch the events at home through the live broadcast.
“Congressman Clyburn is offering legislation to rename the HR 4 John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act tomorrow. The name change is expected to be passed unanimously,” Clyburn spokeswoman Hope Derrick said in a statement. Sunday.
The House passed the measure in December that would reinstate a key part of the landmark Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court struck down in 2013. Democrats have lobbied the Republican-controlled Senate to adopt the legislation after Lewis’s death.
CNN’s Faith Karimi and Devan Cole contributed to this report.
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