Republican senators post pictures of Elijah Cummings in John Lewis tribute
Social media accounts for two Republican senators, Marco Rubio of Florida and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, mistakenly posted photos of the late congressman Elijah Cummings alongside comments meant to honor John Lewis.
The posts were quickly revised with photos of Lewis, the civil rights leader and lawmaker who died on Friday at the age of 80.
Rubio acknowledged the error and displayed a video of himself with Lewis.
“Earlier today I tweeted an incorrect photo,” he wrote. “John Lewis was a genuine American hero. I was honored to appear together in Miami three years ago at an event captured in video below. May God grant him eternal rest.”
Sullivan’s Facebook tribute to Lewis featured a photo of Sullivan and Cummings, a congressman from Maryland who died last year, at the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The revised tribute omitted reference to the museum, and the photo was replaced with a picture of Lewis alone. The changes were made without comment. In response to an email, Sullivan spokesman Mike Anderson wrote: “Senator Sullivan’s staff made a mistake trying to honor an American legend.”
Lewis, a Democrat from Atlanta, was the last survivor of the Big Six civil rights activists, led by Martin Luther King.
He was best known for leading 600 protesters in the 1965 Bloody Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Lewis was knocked to the ground and beaten by state troopers. Televised images focused the country’s attention on racial oppression.
Lewis represented an Atlanta district from 1987 until his death. Cummings, a fellow civil rights activist who won 12 terms in Congress representing a district in Maryland, died last October, aged 68.