Live updates: John Lewis funeral procession reaches Capitol Rotunda

WASHINGTON – John Lewis returned to the nation’s capital one last time Monday.

Onlookers applauded as the hearse carrying the late congressman and civil rights icon drove onto the Capitol grounds following a route that took his motorcade passed many landmarks significant to him.

There was the memorial to Martin Luther King Jr., Lewis’ friend and mentor.

Then the Lincoln Memorial. Lewis had been the last living speaker from the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Justice that culminated at the memorial.

Lewis had made his last public appearance in June at the Black Lives Matter Plaza near the White House, where he had “passed the torch,” as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described it.

“John Lewis brought the world here today because his impact and legacy will be forever known around the world,” Georgia state Rep. Rep. Vernon Jones told USA TODAY after Lewis’ hearse drove through the plaza, located near the White House. “I am a living product of John Lewis.”

After the motorcade had headed up Pennsylvania Avenue, President Donald Trump told reporters he wouldn’t be going to the Capitol to pay his respects as Lewis lies in state for two days.

“No, I won’t be going, no,” he told reporters as he left the White House for a trip to North Carolina.

Former Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, stood in front of the casket for several moments in the late afternoon, before the casket was scheduled to be brought to the Capitol’s east front for public viewing.

After the hearse arrived at the Capitol, one member of Lewis’ honor guard fainted in the heat before Lewis’ flag-draped casket was lifted from the hearse and carried up the steps.

“Ready, step! Ready, step! Ready, step!” the guard called out as it moved in unison.

Inside the Capitol Rotunda, members of the House and Senate and other invited guests sat 6 feet apart in concentric circles.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus, wearing face masks that read “Good Trouble,” sat together.

The honor guard carried Lewis’ casket to the center of the rotunda and, with bowed heads, placed it on the catafalque constructed in 1865 to support Abraham Lincoln’s casket.

“John was revered and beloved on both sides of the aisle, on both sides of the Capitol,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “We knew that he always worked on the side of the angels. And now, we know that he is with them.”

The last time Pelosi saw Lewis, a few weeks before he died, she brought him a pin that said “One country, one destiny.”

Those were the words embroidered into the coat that Abraham Lincoln was wearing the night he was assassinated by a Confederate sympathizer.

Pelosi said Lewis’ identification with Lincoln was clear 57 years ago when, at the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial, Lewis declared, “Our minds, souls, and hearts cannot rest until freedom and justice exist for all the people.”

“Between then and now, John Lewis became a titan of the Civil Rights Movement and then, the `Conscience of the U.S. Congress,’” she said. 

Referencing King’s famous saying, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said “history only bent toward what’s right because people like John paid the price” – at a Nashville lunch counter, in a jail cell, at a bus station in South Carolina, and beyond. 

“Even though the world around him gave him every cause for bitterness,” McConnell said, Lewis treated everyone “with respect and love.”

As Christian vocalist Wintley Phipps sang an emotional version of “Amazing Grace,” Rep. Johanna Hayes, D-Conn., saw Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-N.Y., crying. She reached into her purse and handed him a tissue. 

Placing his hand on his father’s casket, Lewis’ only son, John-Miles Lewis, led the procession of mourners paying their respects at the conclusion of the service.

Leaders of Congress formed a half-ring around the casket. Pelosi blew Lewis a kiss from her masked mouth.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus came up as a group to surround their colleague. Some wiped tears from their eyes.

“He sacrificed so much for people that he had never met to make this country strive towards a more perfect Union,” Sen. Tim Scott, the first African American senator from South Carolina, said after the ceremony. “It’s a hero’s farewell and earned, deserved in every way.”

July 26, 2020: Honoring civil rights icon John Lewis as national protests rage

George H.W. Bush was the last person to lay in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, an honor given to American statesmen and military leaders, including twelve U.S. presidents. 

Longtime congressman Elijah E. Cummings, who died last October, was the first African American lawmaker to lie in state in the Capitol, though not in the rotunda.

In 2005, civil rights icon Rosa Parks laid “in honor” in the rotunda, the tribute given to private citizens who have not served in government or the military. 

The Lincoln catafalque, rough pine boards nailed together and covered in a black cloth, has been used for most of those who have lain “in state” in the rotunda.

The base and platform have occasionally been altered to accommodate the larger size of modern coffins, but otherwise has changed little since Lincoln’s time, according to the Architect of the Capitol.

While the cloth covering has needed to be replaced over the years, the style of the drapery has remained the same.

Because of the pandemic, the Lewis family has encouraged supporters to organize “John Lewis Virtual Love Events” in their homes to watch the ceremonies rather than traveling to public ceremonies. People can also show support by tying a blue or purple ribbon on their doors or in their front yards, by posting tributes on social media using the hashtags  #BelovedCommunity or #HumanDignity, or by leaving a written tribute at www.theJohnLewisLegacy.com.

Members of Congress spent hours on the floor last week offering testimonials.

“In the coming days, when the streets are filled with those who mourn John, we will see people in fine suits and people in rags,” said Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif. “We will see laborers and professionals. We will see faces pained by disease or poverty. But all of them will rejoice that John Lewis lived.”

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