John Lewis funeral: Obama pays tribute to congressman's fight against injustice

Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush also attended

Former President Barack Obama, addresses the service during the funeral for the late Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Thursday, July 30, 2020. AP

Former US president Barack Obama called on people to follow John Lewis’s example to fight injustice as he paid tribute at the late congressman and black rights hero’s funeral on Thursday.

Other former presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush also joined in the eulogies for Lewis at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church after nearly a week of mourning.

During those days, a procession took his body from his birthplace in Alabama, to the nation’s capital of Washington, and to his final resting place in his home of Atlanta.

Lewis was “a man of pure joy and unbreakable perseverance", Mr Obama said in a rousing speech in which he connected Lewis’s legacy to the continuing fight against those trying to discourage people from voting.

He said that he “owed a great debt” to Lewis, who died on July 17 at the age of 80.

Lewis was the last survivor of the Big Six civil rights activists, led by the Rev Martin Luther King Jr.

“America was built by John Lewises," Mr Obama said. "He as much as anyone in our history brought this country a little bit closer to our highest ideals.

“And some day, when we do finish that long journey towards freedom, when we do form a more perfect union, whether it’s years from now or decades or even if it takes another two centuries, John Lewis will be a founding father of that fuller, fairer, better America.”

Former Republican president George W Bush said Lewis preached the Gospel and lived its ideals, “insisting that hate and fear had to be answered with love and hope".

Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, recalled that while Lewis’s body was lying in state at the US Capitol this week, a double rainbow appeared.

“There was this double rainbow over the casket,” Ms Pelosi said. “He was telling us, ‘I’m home in heaven, I’m home in heaven.’

"We always knew he worked on the side of angels, and now he is with them.”

His legacy of activism has been tied to Ebenezer’s former pastor, the Rev Martin Luther King Jr, whose sermons Lewis discovered while scanning the radio dial as a 15-year-old growing up in segregated Alabama.

King continued to inspire Lewis’s civil rights work for the next 65 years as he fought segregation during sometimes bloody marches, Greyhound bus “freedom rides” across the South and later during his long tenure in the US Congress.

The late U.S. Congressman John Lewis, a key figure in the civil rights movement and long-time member of the U.S. House of Representatives, is carried via horse-drawn carriage across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Reuters

A socially-disatnced service at Troy University in Lewis's Alabama hometown. AFP

People watch and record as John Lewis's casket is taken into Brown Chapel Church in Selma, Alabama. AFP

The rose petals represent the blood Lewis spilled on the bridge on 'Bloody Sunday' in 1965. Reuters

This time, there's an honour guard for Lewis. EPA

Mourners wait for the funeral procession. AFP

The horse-drawn carriage carries the body of civil rights icon. AFP

Military pallbearers prepare to place the body of former US Rep. John Lewis into a hearse. AFP

It is the second of six days of ceremonies honouring Lewis. AFP

Military pallbearers wear face masks as part of the coronavirus-enhanced measures for Lewis's memorial. AFP

“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America,” Lewis said of his run-ins with the law.

The phrase was repeated several times at the funeral.

“We will continue to get into good trouble as long as you grant us the breath to do so,” one of King’s daughters, the Rev Bernice King, said as she led the congregation in prayer.

Ebenezer’s senior pastor, the Rev Raphael Warnock, told the congregation: “Here lies a true American patriot who risked his life for the hope and promise of democracy."

Outside the church, hundreds gathered to watch the service on a large screen. Some sang the gospel song We shall Overcome.

King was "the person who, more than any other, continued to influence my life, who made me who I was", Lewis wrote in his 1998 autobiography, Walking with the Wind.

By the summer of 1963, he was addressing thousands of people during the March on Washington, where King gave his “I have a Dream” speech.

Lewis spoke about black people being beaten by police and jailed, themes that resonate vividly in today’s times.

US Representative John Lewis attends an event to introduce the "Voting Rights Advancement Act" on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2019. Reuters

US Representative John Lewis speaks during a public memorial for Robert F. Kennedy at the 50th anniversary of his assassination at Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, on June 6, 2018. Reuters

Congressman John Lewis addresses supporters of Democrat Jon Ossoff as they wait for the poll numbers to come in for Georgia's 6th Congressional District special election in Atlanta, Georgia, on June 20, 2017. Reuters

US Representative John Lewis gestures during Day 2 of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center on on July 26, 2016, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. AFP

US Representative John Lewis talks to supporters along with House Democrats after their sit-in over gun-control law on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on June 23, 2016. Reuters

US Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia and one of the original marchers, speaks during an event marking the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches at the Edmund Pettus Bridgein Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 2015. AFP

US President Barack Obama walks alongside Amelia Boynton Robinson, right, one of the original marchers, the Reverend Al Sharpton second right, First Lady Michelle Obama, left, and US Representative John Lewis, second left, Democrat of Georgia, and also one of the original marchers, across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches in Selma, Alabama. AFP

US Representative John Lewis speaks during the Let Freedom Ring Commemoration and Call to Action to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on on August 28, 2013. AFP

US Representative John Lewis is presented with the 2010 Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama during an East Room event at the White House on February 15, 2011 in Washington, DC. AFP

US Representative John Lewis is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on October 10, 2007. AP Photo

US Representative John Lewis at his office on Capitol Hill on May 10, 2007. AP Photo

From left, Brown Chapel AME Church Pastor James Jackson, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama, D-Ill., US Representative John Lewis, D-Georgia, and Rev. Clete Kiley, hold hands and sing at the end of a church service in Selma, Alabama, on the commemoration of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. protest march from Selma to Montgomery, on March 4, 2007. AP Photo

Former US President Gerald Ford hugs US Congressman John Lewis after the two men received John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage awards May 21, 2001 at the JFK Presidential Library in Boston. Reuters

US Representative John Lewis speaks with reporters in Washington, DC, on March 5, 1999. AP Photo

John Lewis, front left, and his wife, Lillian, holding hands, lead a march of supporters from his campaign headquarters to an Atlanta hotel for a victory party after he defeated Julian Bond in a runoff election for Georgia's 5th Congressional District seat in Atlanta, on September 3, 1986. AP Photo

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., fourth from left, foreground, locks arms with his aides as he leads a march of several thousands to the courthouse in Montgomery, Alabama. From left are: an unidentified woman, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, James Foreman, King, Jesse Douglas Sr., and John Lewis. AP Photo

Six leaders of the nation's largest black civil rights organizations pose at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York on July 2, 1963. From left, are: John Lewis, chairman Student Non-Violence Coordinating Committee; Whitney Young, national director, Urban League; A. Philip Randolph, president of the Negro American Labor Council; Martin Luther King Jr., president Southern Christian Leadership Conference; James Farmer, Congress of Racial Equality director; and Roy Wilkins, executive secretary, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. AP Photo

A state trooper swings a billy club at John Lewis, right foreground, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, to break up a civil rights voting march in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965. AP Photo

John R. Lewis, National Chairman of the Student Non-Violent Committee, at the National Urban League headquarters in New York on August 23, 1963. AP Photo

“My friends, let us not forget that we are involved in a serious social revolution,” Lewis told the huge crowd on the Washington Mall.

“To those who have said, ‘Be patient and wait,’ we have long said that we cannot be patient. We do not want our freedom gradually, but we want to be free now.

"We are tired. We are tired of being beaten by policemen. We are tired of seeing our people locked up in jail over and over again.”

In 1965, Lewis was beaten by Alabama state troopers in the city of Selma in what became known as “Bloody Sunday".

Last Sunday, his casket was carried across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.

His wagon rolled over a carpet of rose petals on the bridge that spans the Alabama River.

On the south side of the bridge, where Lewis was attacked by the police, the carriage rolled over red roses placed by family members, marking the spot where he spilled his blood and suffered a head injury.

Lewis was later awarded the Medal of Freedom by Mr Obama, the nation’s first black president, in 2011.

He spent more than three decades in Congress, and his district included most of Atlanta.