ATLANTA — The funeral for the late civil rights icon and congressman John Lewis will be held Thursday at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once led.
Lewis’ family announced that the funeral will be private, but the public is invited to pay tribute over the coming days during a series of celebrations of Lewis’ life beginning Saturday in his hometown of Troy, Alabama.
Ceremonies will also be held in Selma, Alabama, and his body will lie in state at the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta and the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Lewis, 80, died Friday after a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer. He represented Georgia as a Congressman for more than 30 years, winning 17 elections. He also fought for Civil Rights for Black people in the 1960s, originally gaining notoriety as one of the 13 original "Freedom Riders."
