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Body of Rep. John Lewis to Lie in State at U.S. Capitol

HeadlineJul 24, 2020

Memorials for the late congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis will be held over the next week. He will lie in state at the Alabama Capitol in Montgomery and the Capitol Rotunda in Washington. An unprecedented public viewing will also take place outside on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. This weekend, a military honor guard will accompany his body for a final crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where he was almost beaten to death in 1965 while marching for voting rights. There is a growing movement to rename the bridge after Lewis. Edmund Pettus was a Confederate officer, U.S. senator and a grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. Meanwhile, in Virginia, the Fairfax County School Board has voted to change the name of a local high school from Robert E. Lee to John R. Lewis.

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