A man of ‘unbreakable perseverance’ is laid to rest

Civil-rights leader John Lewis was eulogized by three former presidents in Atlanta, the city he represented in Congress for more than three decades.

ATLANTA

Three former presidents and dozens of other dignitaries were drawn to Ebenezer

Baptist Church on

Thursday to bid farewell to John Lewis, a giant of Congress and the civil-rights era whose courageous protests guaranteed him a place in American history. But even as the funeral looked back over

Lewis’ long life, it also focused very much on the tumultuous state of affairs in the country today.

The most pointed eulogy came from former President Barack Obama, who issued a blistering critique of the Trump administration, the brutality of police officers toward Black people and efforts to limit voting rights that Lewis had shed his

JOE RAEDLE Getty Images An honor guard carries the casket of Rep. John Lewis, who fought racial discrimination in the 1960s and in his tenure in Congress.

John Lewis