John Lewis becomes 1st Black legislator to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol

John Lewis body in the Capitol Rotunda.
(Image credit: Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images)

The body of civil rights leader and longtime House representative John Lewis was driven past the Lincoln Memorial and Washington, D.C.'s Black Lives Matter plaza on Monday on its way to the U.S Capitol.

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Lewis, who died July 17 at the age of 80, is the first Black legislator to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. Dozens of lawmakers waited in socially distanced chairs to pay their respects to Lewis, some wearing "good trouble" masks referencing Lewis' famous quote on civil disobedience.

Lewis' body was carried across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on Sunday after a memorial service in his hometown of Troy the day before. Lewis was beaten by police while leading a civil rights march over the bridge named for a segregationist 55 years ago; Rev. Grainger Browning Jr. hoped the bridge would be renamed for Lewis in a prayer upon his arrival in the Capitol. Lewis also spoke in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the 1963 March on Washington.

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Vice President Mike Pence and former Vice President Joe Biden are expected to stop in the Capitol, but President Trump said he would not. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-Md.) will move to rename a House-passed voting rights bill after Lewis on Monday, and two Republican House members urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to take up the bill. Kathryn Krawczyk

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Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.