#Obama will give eulogy at Rep. John Lewis’ funeral in Atlanta, reports say

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President Barack Obama presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to U.S. Rep. John Lewis in 2011.
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File

Former President Barack Obama will deliver a eulogy Thursday at the funeral service for civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, according to reports.

Obama, the first African American president, will speak at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the former church of Martin Luther King Jr.

A spokesperson for Obama did not immediately respond to an inquiry on reports, including in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that he will speak.

Lewis, a longtime Atlanta Democratic congressman, died July 17 from pancreatic cancer. He was 80.

In a statement after his death, Obama recalled meeting Lewis as a law student and senator.

“When I was elected President of the United States, I hugged him on the inauguration stand before I was sworn in and told him I was only there because of the sacrifices he made,” Obama said.

The funeral will cap a six-day celebration of Lewis’ legacy, which featured stops in his home state of Alabama and a two-day remembrance at the US Capitol. President Trump, who had a frosty relationship with Lewis, did not attend events at the Capitol.

Lewis’ body began a tour of significant sites in his life Saturday with an event in his hometown of Troy, Alabama. On Sunday a horse-drawn carriage took Lewis’ coffin over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where a 25-year-old Lewis led a voting rights march in 1965 that police violently dispersed.

Lewis suffered a fractured skull as he and other freedom marchers were bloodied by state troopers and other police on the bridge 55 years ago.

House Democrats are seeking to harness Lewis’ legacy to pass a controversial voting rights bill, which they renamed Monday in his honor. There’s also a campaign to rename the bridge, which is dedicated to a Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader.

Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.) said on Sunday, “I think that we all need to honor him in the best way possible. And that means that we need to pass the Voting Rights Act.”

The funeral service is schedule to begin at 11 a.m. on Thursday.