Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton will also attend the funeral.
Former President Barack Obama will praise the late Representative John Lewis at a funeral Thursday, concluding six days of memorials that pay tribute to his life and legacy as a civil rights icon.
Lewis, the son of Alabama sharecroppers, played a pivotal role in passing the landmark Voting Rights Act in 1965 and served for more than three decades in Congress representing Georgia’s 5th Congressional District.
Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton will also attend the private funeral at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, which was once led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Lewis to be buried at South View Cemetery in Atlanta on Thursday afternoon.
Lewis died on July 17 at age 80 after a months-long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Funeral ceremonies began last Saturday in Lewis’ hometown of Troy, Alabama. On Selma Sunday, 55 years after he and other protesters were hit on “Bloody Sunday,” Lewis crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the last time. Where he once encountered walking sticks, Lewis’ coffin saw the salutes of the state troopers.
Members of Congress, his family, staff, and the general public paid tribute to Lewis on Monday and Tuesday at the United States Capitol in a socially estranged ceremony, an unprecedented open-air public visit, and a nightly vigil at the Roundabout.
Lewis has now been to the Alabama State Capitol, the Georgia State Capitol, and the Nation’s Capitol, an honor reserved for the most revered Americans.
Lewis’s family has asked members of the public not to travel to pay their respects, citing coronavirus precautions. Instead, they have suggested that people pay tribute online using the hashtags #BelovedCommunity and #HumanDignity.
Thursday’s services will air live on ABC News Live.
Janice McDonald of ABC News contributed to this report.
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