Civil rights hero John Lewis will make the journey from Selma to Montgomery one last time.
Fifty-five years ago, the Alabama native was beaten by Alabama state troopers as he and others tried to make that trip to demand equal rights. By the time he died June 17, the long-serving congressman had become the conscience of Washington, a man whose moral gravity had pulled the nation toward equality for decades.
At 10 a.m. Sunday, his body will be carried on a lone pilgrimage across Edmund Pettus Bridge and on to Alabama’s Capitol, where he will lie in state at the Capitol from 2 to 7 p.m. Sunday.
Mayor Steven Reed and other community leaders encourage people to line the sidewalks of Dexter Avenue, the final leg of that journey. They’re asking the public to join them while wearing face coverings and maintaining social distance.
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Reed, the first black mayor in a city Lewis helped fight to integrate, plans to lead a 7 p.m. vigil honoring Lewis’ life and legacy in Bicentennial Park in front of the Capitol. Speakers at the vigil will be announced Friday, a city official said.
In all, six days of ceremonies will trace Lewis' life, starting Saturday in his birthplace of Troy.
He'll lie in repose at a public event from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in Trojan Arena on the campus of Troy University. Lewis will move on from there to Selma, where he'll lie in repose at Brown Chapel AME Church from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. The public is required to wear face coverings at both events.
After the procession Sunday to Montgomery and honoring at the state Capitol, he'll then continue to Washington, where he will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol rotunda beginning at 1:30 p.m. Monday. He’ll be moved to the Capitol’s east front steps later in the day, and the public will be allowed to pay their respects by filing past the east plaza from 6 to 10 p.m. Monday and 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday. Mourners must wear masks and remaining socially distant.
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He'll lie in state in the rotunda of Georgia's state Capitol building from 3 p.m. Wednesday to 8 a.m. Thursday before a celebration of his life starting at 11 a.m. Thursday at Ebenezer Baptist Church Horizon Sanctuary.
A military honor guard will accompany him throughout the journey.
The Lewis family is asking people not to travel to across the country to pay their respects because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, they're encouraging people to remember him from their homes online by tying a blue a purple ribbon on their front door, and using the online hashtags #BelovedCommunity or #HumanDignity.
Lewis was born in Troy but became a global figure because of his determined march toward nonviolent change, in the face of violence. Along that journey, he was severely beaten in Montgomery while working to integrate the nation’s bus system with the Freedom Riders. That work led to the desegregation of the interstate transportation system in 1961.
National outrage over the beating of protesters during the Selma-to-Montgomery March was a major catalyst for the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Lewis was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last December.
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brad Harper at bharper1@gannett.com.
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