NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville officials are inviting the public to celebrate and remember civil rights icon John Lewis in an upcoming dedication ceremony.
Earlier this year, Nashville's Metro Council renamed a large portion of Fifth Avenue North to Rep. John Lewis Way. Councilwoman Zulfat Suara submitted the request last year, focusing on Lewis' work to desegregate Nashville's lunch counters before becoming a long-serving congressman in Georgia.
According to The Tennessean, the city will host a dedication July 16 and 17. The event was originally scheduled for February but was delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak.
As a college student at American Baptist College and then Fisk University, Lewis helped desegregate public spaces in Nashville and pushed for racial justice across the South. Lewis was a Freedom Rider, he spoke at the March on Washington and he was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama.
Lewis died July 17, 2020. He was 80.