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John Lewis Is the First Black Lawmaker to Lie in State in the Capitol Rotunda John Lewis, Lying in State, Is Honored as Part of a ‘Pantheon of Patriots’
(about 8 hours later)
Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia and a civil rights icon, will lie in state Monday in the Capitol Rotunda, the first Black lawmaker to receive one of the highest American honors, before a viewing for the public to be held outside. WASHINGTON — When the honor guard placed Representative John Lewis’s coffin in the Capitol Rotunda on Monday, the civil rights icon’s body lay upon the same catafalque that President Abraham Lincoln’s did.
With the Capitol closed to the public amid the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Lewis will spend only a few hours lying in state under the Capitol dome after an invitation-only ceremony reserved exclusively for members of the legislative branch on Monday afternoon. About 80 lawmakers are expected to attend, according to a Capitol official. It was a fitting tribune: The raised box that once supported the president most responsible for ending slavery now carried the first Black lawmaker to lie in state in the Rotunda, a man who dedicated his life to ensuring that with freedom came equality.
Afterward, Mr. Lewis’s coffin will be moved outside to the Capitol steps, and members of the public will be able to line up — with masks required and social distancing enforced — to view it from the plaza below on Monday evening and all day Tuesday. “Under the dome of the U.S. Capitol, we have bid farewell to some of the greatest Americans in our history,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said during an emotional ceremony Monday afternoon to honor Mr. Lewis, a Georgia Democrat who endured numerous arrests and beatings in his lifelong push for civil rights. “It is fitting that John Lewis joins this pantheon of patriots.”
Among those paying their respects will be Vice President Mike Pence and Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, according to their public schedules. President Trump is not scheduled to attend. Speakers recalled Mr. Lewis’s remarkable rise in American life, from a farmhouse in Pike County, Ala., with no running water or electricity to his leading role in the effort to end segregation and his ascent to the halls of Congress.
Here is the schedule of events to honor Mr. Lewis. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, invoked the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a friend of Mr. Lewis’s, who once said that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
There will be an invitation-only arrival ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda. “But that is never automatic,” Mr. McConnell said. “History only bent toward what’s right because people like John paid the price to help bend it.”
The Rev. Grainger Browning Jr. of Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church in Fort Washington, Md., will give the invocation, followed by remarks from Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader. Typically, when a lawmaker with the stature of Mr. Lewis is honored in the Capitol, the building hosts thousands of visitors. But the coronavirus pandemic limited the crowd inside the Rotunda to just dozens.
There will be a presentation of wreaths by Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland and the majority leader; Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California and the minority leader; Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader; and Senator Tim Scott, Republican of South Carolina. The crowd included a cross-section of influential lawmakers from both parties and other notable guests. Among them were several potential Democratic vice-presidential picks: Senator Kamala Harris of California, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Representative Karen Bass of California and Representative Val Demings of Florida. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser of Washington, who was with Mr. Lewis at his final public appearance last month, sat with the Congressional Black Caucus.
The vocal artist Wintley Phipps will sing the Christian hymns “Amazing Grace” and “It Is Well.” Members of the caucus wore masks that read “Good Trouble” — a nod to one of Mr. Lewis’s favorite phrases encouraging people to stand up against injustice.
Representative James E. Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina and the majority whip, will give the benediction. One notable absence was President Trump, who told reporters he had no plans to attend the ceremony for Mr. Lewis, whom he had criticized in recent years.
Instead of remaining under the Capitol dome while members of the public pay respects, as is traditional, Mr. Lewis’s coffin will be moved outside to the Capitol steps to allow for a more pandemic-friendly viewing. Members of the public will be able to line up in a socially distanced way to see him lying in state from the plaza below. “I won’t be going, no,” Mr. Trump told reporters.
Even with the health precautions, Mr. Lewis’s family discouraged people from traveling from out of town to the Capitol amid the pandemic, instead asking for “virtual tributes” using the hashtags #BelovedCommunity or #HumanDignity. Among those expected to pay respects to Mr. Lewis after the ceremony were Vice President Mike Pence and Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, according to their public schedules. Mr. Lewis’s body was set to be moved outside Monday evening, so the public could pay tribute.
The public viewing of Mr. Lewis’s coffin will continue all day Tuesday. Before the ceremony, a solemn crowd gathered outside the building to watch the motorcade carrying Mr. Lewis arrive.
Mr. Lewis, a 17-term congressman from Georgia and the senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus, died July 17 after battling pancreatic cancer. “Come on — you don’t want to miss it,” June Jeffries, 66, said as her son, Rudolph, hoisted her barefoot granddaughter, Clara, onto his shoulders to see the motorcade turn into the Capitol complex.
He was known as the “conscience of the Congress” for his moral authority acquired through years of protest for racial equality — including when he was brutally beaten during voting rights demonstrations in Selma, Ala., in 1965 and across the Jim Crow South. On Sunday, he made his final journey across the Edmund Pettus Bridge there, his coffin carried by a horse-drawn caisson past the very spot where a state trooper wielding a club fractured his skull 55 years ago. “My wife and I are explaining to her, particularly for her, what it means to be Black,” said Mr. Jeffries, who lives in Silver Spring, Md. “This is the type of event we wouldn’t miss.”
Last year, Representative Elijah E. Cummings became the first Black lawmaker to lie in state in the Capitol, though he was honored in Statuary Hall, not in the Rotunda, where presidents and other statesmen have lain. The site is reserved for the nation’s most revered figures, most recently including President George Bush and Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona. Rosa Parks, the civil rights pioneer, lay in honor there in 2005, receiving the highest honor afforded to a private citizen. Both Ms. Jeffries and her son remembered the cold day they spent outside the Supreme Court to pay homage to Thurgood Marshall, its first African-American justice, after his death. On Monday, even in sweltering heat, the pair felt it important for Clara, 4, to do the same.
“I want my daughter to understand she’s part of this community and that she has a responsibility as a member of this community to participate in these kinds of events,” he added. “Appreciate the people who made it possible for us to live as freely as we do.”
Emily Cochrane contributed reporting.