Lawmakers are seeking ways to honor the legacy of the late civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), from possibly lying in state in\u2026<\/b>
\nLawmakers are seeking ways to honor the legacy of the late civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), from possibly lying in state in the Capitol to pushing for an expansion of voting rights that he spent his lifetime defending.
Democrats returning to Washington on Monday three days after Lewis died from pancreatic cancer were at turns emotional over the loss of their colleague, and adamant that Lewis will be honored in ways befitting his historic contributions to his country.
What form that takes remains very much in the air, in part because of the coronavirus pandemic.
A towering figure like Lewis would normally receive the honor of lying in state in the Capitol rotunda, but it\u2019s unclear how members of the public could pay their respects while the building is closed to tourists. Still, many lawmakers are pressing for one of Congress’s rarest honors.
\u201cIf anybody deserves to lie in state here at the Capitol, it’s John,\u201d said Rep. Ra\u00fal Grijalva (D-Ariz.), adding that one of his fondest moments in Congress was getting arrested with Lewis during a protest against former President Obama\u2019s immigration policies.
\u201cNot only was he the conscience of the Congress, but he also brought nobility to the position,\u201d Grijalva said. \u201cPeople like him are irreplaceable.\u201d
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) seconded that idea, saying Lewis \u201ccertainly\u201d should lie in state.
\u201cAnd I think there are a number of other things we ought to do as well,\u201d he added, without offering specifics.
Lewis’s family has delayed their service plans until after the burial of the Rev. C. T. Vivian, another hero of the civil rights movement who also died Friday. Vivian’s services are scheduled for Thursday.
The House on Monday held a moment of silence that was noticeably punctuated by sniffles as lawmakers and staff alike \u2014 from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to the House reading clerk \u2014 struggled to hold back tears.
Susan Cole, the clerk, began reading aloud in her usual neutral tone from the text of a resolution that \u201cthe House has heard with profound sorrow\u2026\u201d but then, in a rare display of emotion, she stopped.
Cole paused for a full 10 seconds to collect herself before completing the sentence: \u201c… of the death of the Honorable John Lewis, a representative from the state of Georgia.\u201d
\u201cEvery once in a while, there are moments on this floor where time stops. And there are no Democrats or Republicans, just Americans. And that was one of them,\u201d Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) said outside the House chamber afterward.
Recent political figures to receive the honor of lying in state or in honor include former Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and President George H. W. Bush. All drew crowds of mourners who waited outside for hours to pay their respects.
Phillips suggested that there could be ways to have Lewis lie in state and still allow members of the public to enter the Capitol with some social distancing measures amid the coronavirus pandemic.
\u201cIt can be done safely, in my estimation, with masks and distancing and fewer than 50 people in the rotunda at a time. I think considering these times and that man, we should do everything possible to accommodate that,\u201d Phillips said.
Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) proposed yet another option to honor Lewis, suggesting that the Smithsonian’s Museum of African American History find a place for an exhibit about the man who chaired the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, was the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington, and suffered a brutal skull fracture at the hands of a police officer while marching on \u201cBloody Sunday\u201d in 1965.
Rep. Kevin Brady (Texas), the senior Republican on the Ways and Means Committee, where Lewis held a senior position, said one of his proudest moments in Congress was dedicating a committee room in honor of the late Rep. Sam Johnson (R-Texas), a prisoner of war in North Vietnam for almost seven years.
\u201cI think we’d love to see something like that for John, given his contributions to our country and the Congress,\u201d Brady said.
Democrats want to memorialize Lewis with legislation that advances the human rights causes to which Lewis dedicated his life.
At the top of that list is legislation to update the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which Lewis helped usher into law with the \u201cBloody Sunday\u201d march in Selma, Ala., just months earlier. The House passed the bill last December, but Senate Republicans have refused to consider it.
\u201cThat would be the appropriate way to honor John Lewis, is for the Senate to take up the Voting Rights Act and name it for John Lewis,\u201d Pelosi said on MSNBC\u2019s \u201cMorning Joe.\u201d
\u201cSome of the most meaningful ways that we can honor the legacy of Congressman Lewis is through legislation that enacts meaningful change,\u201d said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N. Y.).
Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), who entered Congress along with Lewis and Pelosi in 1987, agreed that the Voting Rights Act update was a good start.
\u201cI don’t think we could ever do enough for John. That’s my real feeling about all of this,\u201d he said. \u201c[But] getting that voting rights legislation out of the Senate would be crucial \u2014 that would be a good first step, to demonstrate commitment and sincerity for all the things he lived and ultimately ended up dying for.\u201d
The House had already planned before Lewis\u2019s death to vote Wednesday on legislation to remove statues of Confederates and other white supremacists in the Capitol in light of the recent protests over racial injustice.
That vote will take on even more significance amid calls to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge \u2014 the site of \u201cBloody Sunday\u201d currently named after a Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader \u2014 after Lewis. And some lawmakers suggested that Georgia \u2014 which has a statue on display in the Capitol of Alexander Hamilton Stephens, the Confederacy\u2019s vice president \u2014 consider a monument to Lewis instead.
Colleagues recalled how Lewis served as a gentle, calming presence who frequently invoked his civil rights activism for guiding legislation through Congress.
Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) helped Lewis organize a sit-in on the House floor in 2016 to push for gun control legislation after a shooting at an Orlando nightclub. Lewis at the time called for his colleagues to \u201cuse nonviolence to fight gun violence and inaction.\u201d
\u201cIt went from a small group to everybody realized what he represents,\u201d Larson recounted.
In 2010, when Larson served as the House Democratic caucus chairman, he presided over what he called a \u201cvery emotional\u201d closed-door meeting with then-President Obama as they prepared to pass the Affordable Care Act.
The day before the caucus meeting, protesters had hurled racial epithets at Lewis and two other Black lawmakers, Reps. Emanuel Cleaver (Mo.) and Andr\u00e9 Carson (Ind.), adding further to the tensions. But Lewis counseled his colleagues that Martin Luther King Jr. always reminded people in the civil rights movement to stay focused, just as he believed they should with what would become Obama\u2019s signature legislative accomplishment.
\u201cEven when tensions were high and they could go the other way, he calmed down other people. He calmed down the entire caucus,\u201d Larson said. \u201cHe practiced what he preached: peaceful resistance, keeping your eye on the prize and staying together.\u201d<\/p>\n