(Washington) A funeral service in the state of Alabama on Saturday kicked off a series of tribute ceremonies for John Lewis, a figure in the struggle for civil rights in the United States, who died of cancer last week at the age of 80 years.
Posted on 25 July 2020 at 12 h 02
France Media Agency
The public could gather from 07 h at the university of Troy, his hometown, in front of the coffin, wrapped in an American flag, of the former traveling companion of Martin Luther King.
PHOTO CHRISTOPHER ALUKA BERRY, REUTERS
COVID pandemic – 19 requires, the number of authorized persons has been limited to 90 and the wearing of the mask required.
Son of sharecroppers, John Lewis had become over the years 924 one of the most respected voices in the country for justice and equality, before being elected for the first time to the United States Congress in 1965.
His coffin will be transported Sunday morning to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where the former activist almost succumbed to police beatings in 1965 during a pacifist march against racial discrimination.
He will rest on Monday under the dome of the Capitol in Washington, an honor reserved for the highest American personalities.
PHOTO ELIJAH NEWS, REUTERS
The public will be able to come and pay him a last tribute on Monday evening and Tuesday, again with a mask and appropriate social distancing.
John Lewis's family has asked Americans not to travel across the country in order to limit the spread of the virus and prioritize online tributes.
This series of commemorations will end Thursday in Atlanta, Georgia, a state that the deceased represented for more than thirty years in Congress.
He will be buried there after a private ceremony at the church baptized Ebenezer, where Pastor Martin Luther King had officiated.
