Civil Rights Icon John Lewis Remembered In His Hometown

|

July 25th, 2020

Fraternity members sing in front of the casket of John Lewis during a service celebrating “The Boy from Troy” at Alabama’s Troy University on Saturday. Lewis, who carried the struggle against racial discrimination from Southern battlegrounds of the 1960s to the halls of Congress, died July 17.

Brynn Anderson / Associated PRess

Civil rights icon and longtime Georgia congressman John Lewis was remembered Saturday — in the rural Alabama county where his story began — as a humble man who sprang from his family’s farm with a vision that “good trouble” could change the world.

The morning service in the city of Troy in rural Pike County was held at Troy University, where Lewis would often playfully remind the chancellor that he was denied admission in 1957 because he was Black, and where decades later he was awarded an honorary doctorate.

Lewis, who became a civil rights icon and a longtime Georgia congressman, died July 17 at the age of 80.

Related

Top Stories