Masked mourners brave heat, virus fears to honor John Lewis
Source: AP
By ASHRAF KHALIL
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mourners braved both coronavirus fears and brutal heat on Tuesday to pay their respects to the late Rep. John Lewis, the first Black lawmaker to lie in state at the Capitol Rotunda.
The crowds were thin and lines nonexistent, partially because of high temperatures. But those who came said it was important to personally honor a civil rights icon who died just as America was confronting another national reckoning over entrenched racial iniquities.
“He was worth the virus risk and worth every drop of sweat,” said Alicia Patterson, 66, who came from Maryland with three generations of her family to observe Lewis’ flag-draped casket. “He worked hard for all of us, and he deserved this and more.”
Lewis died July 17 of cancer at the age of 80. The long-serving Georgia congressman took part in Martin Luther King’s 1963 March on Washington. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 2011 by Barack Obama and is the first Black lawmaker to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda.
People view the flag-draped casket of Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., as he lies in state on the East Front Steps of the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, July 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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