Former President Barack Obama will praise the late Representative John Lewis at his funeral in Atlanta on Thursday, a source familiar with the planning told NBC News on Wednesday.
Lewis, who was known as the conscience of Congress and leader of the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, died at the age of 80 earlier this month from complications of pancreatic cancer.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported the news.
“He loved this country so much that he risked his life and blood to fulfill his promise. And over the decades, he not only gave himself up for the cause of freedom and justice, but inspired the generations that followed. to try to live up to their example, “Obama said in a statement after Lewis’s death.
Lewis broke ranks with Hillary Clinton, then a New York senator, and former President Bill Clinton, with whom she had a close friendship, during the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries to support her rival, Obama, who would later become the candidate for the party and the nation’s first black president.
Obama awarded Lewis the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.
Former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush will be in attendance, while the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said Clinton is also expected to be there.
However, Deanna Congelio, a spokeswoman for former President Jimmy Carter, 95, and First Lady Rosalyn Carter, 92, told NBC News that the Carters will not attend. Carter, who is the oldest living president and a cancer survivor, was previously a Georgia state senator and served as state governor from 1971 to 1975.
“The Carters don’t travel these days, but they send their condolences in writing,” said Congelio.
Lewis’ services will be held at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Thursday and will not be open to the public. He will later be buried with his wife, Lillian, in the South-View Cemetery.
Lewis had been in the state at the United States Capitol Rotunda earlier this week, where a bipartisan group of lawmakers and members of the public paid their respects. He also had a ceremony in Selma, Alabama, in view of a voting rights march known as Bloody Sunday.
