Emotional Photos Show How People Paid Their Respects To Civil Rights Icon John Lewis

Mourners gathered in long lines in the heat to see him lie in state at the capitol buildings in Alabama and Georgia.

BuzzFeed News Photo Director

Posted on July 30, 2020, 9:54 pm

Rep. John Lewis, who died on July 17 of pancreatic cancer at age 80, was laid to rest at a funeral in Atlanta on Thursday. He was known as the "conscience of Congress," supporting policies on racial justice, LGBTQ rights, and gun control during his tenure as a member of Congress from Georgia, a position he held since 1986.

Prior to joining Congress, Lewis was an integral part of the civil rights movement as a cofounder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, one of the original Freedom Riders, and the youngest speaker at the March on Washington in 1963.

"Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble," Lewis said in an essay for the New York Times shortly before his death.

Lewis's funeral procession began in Selma, Alabama, and continued through Washington, DC, and Atlanta. Mourners gathered in long lines in the heat to see him lie in state at the capitol buildings in Alabama and Georgia. Lewis is the first Black lawmaker to lie in state at the US Capitol rotunda, where members of Congress and the public came to say goodbye.

A horse-drawn carriage carrying the remains of John Lewis crosses the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama

Visitors wearing masks walk around a casket, which is covered by a US flag and cordoned off by velvet rope barriers

A woman wears a mask that says "John Lewis RIP"

People spill into the street to surround a motorcade, including a hearse; big yellow letters on the street spell out "Black Lives Matter"

A Black man raises his fist as the hearse carrying Rep. John Lewis's body drives on

Several people wearing masks watch as a casket is carried by members of the military up a staircase

An aerial view looks down at the Capitol rotunda, with the casket at the center of the room and attendees sitting around it

A woman dressed in black, with a white hat and white shoes, raises a US flag at the steps of the Capitol, looking up at John Lewis's flag-draped casket at the top of the stairs

Visitors form a socially distanced queue outside the Capitol

A woman takes a picture of another woman, who wears a mask and stands in front of a framed picture of John Lewis; her T-shirt reads a quote from Michelle Obama, "when they go low, we go high"

Joe and Jill Biden stand by the flag-draped casket; a wreath of roses has a sash that reads "United States Senate"

Nancy Pelosi leans onto the shoulder of Michael Collins; both wear masks

Men in blue suits, all wearing masks, stand shoulder to shoulder and hold hands outside the Capitol in Washington, DC

A black woman wearing a black dress and white mask looks to the ground and raises her fist

A crying woman holds a tissue to her eyes and wipes tears

A large poster board for John Lewis reads "Deepest Sympathy" as people use markers to write notes

Two men hold images of former president Barack Obama giving John Lewis the Presidential Medal of Freedom; one of the men wears a mask that reads "can you hear me now?"

A man holds up a large image of John Lewis

Obama at the lectern in front of the flag-draped coffin of John Lewis

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Kate Bubacz
BuzzFeed News Photo Director