John Lewis’ funeral will be Thursday at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, culminating a nearly weeklong “celebration of life” that will include stops in Troy, Selma and Montgomery, Ala., and Washington.
He will also lie in state or repose at each locale, allowing members of the public to file past his casket. The family has requested that all participants wear masks, regardless of whether the event is indoors or outdoors.
The congressman from Georgia and civil rights icon died July 17 at age 80 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Each day of memorial services has been given a theme. Saturday’s is “The Boy from Troy.”
A public memorial is planned for 10 a.m. CDT at Troy University’s Trojan Arena. Seating is limited to 800 people, and tickets must be obtained outside of the facility to attend.
Members of Lewis’ family will speak and gospel artist Dottie Peoples is scheduled to perform. Lewis will lie in repose from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. CDT at the same location.
Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church in Selma, which is the church where Lewis and other activists received attention after being beaten during a 1965 voting rights protest that came to be known as “Bloody Sunday.”
Lewis will lie in repose outside Brown Chapel from 8 to 11 p.m. CDT.
Crowds will likely line the street Sunday morning at 10 a.m. CDT to see Lewis cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge one last time. The theme of the day: “Good Trouble.”