Late civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis will be memorialized at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda next week.
Lewis, who died over the weekend after a battle with pancreatic cancer, will be placed on the East Front Steps of the rotunda for public viewing, which will be allowed on Monday from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. and on Tuesday from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday. Attendees are instructed to wear masks in preparation for what will be an unprecedented ceremony for the Georgia Democrat.
“Given COVID-19 precautions, Congressman Lewis will lie in state at the top of the East Front Steps of the U.S. Capitol for the public viewing, and the public will file past on the East Plaza,” a statement from Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.
JUST IN: @repjohnlewis will lie in state at the @uscapitol on Monday and Tuesday, @SpeakerPelosi
and @senatemajldr announce. pic.twitter.com/TOki23iS4n— Ed O’Keefe (@edokeefe) July 23, 2020
Lewis, long considered one of the most influential men of the Civil Rights movement, will join a rare number of citizens who have lied in state at the Capitol, including most recently the late Rep. Elijah Cummings and late Sen. John McCain.
Members of Lewis’s family have asked members of the public to abstain from traveling across the country to Washington, D.C., for the ceremony, which will include a procession to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial near the National Mall.
