**Chap­ter Twen­ty-Eight: Invic­tus Sum­ma­ry**

Michael Collins spear­head­ed the plan­ning of Lewis’s memo­r­i­al ser­vices, gath­er­ing a remark­able team com­pris­ing staffers, friends, and com­mu­ni­ca­tions experts. Fol­low­ing Lewis’s death, a detailed mul­ti­day itin­er­ary was cre­at­ed, fea­tur­ing events across var­i­ous cities. As the team met night­ly via Zoom, they addressed logis­ti­cal chal­lenges includ­ing coor­di­nat­ing with media, man­ag­ing crowd con­trol, and select­ing par­tic­i­pants for the cer­e­monies. Key to the plan­ning was Nan­cy Pelosi’s arrange­ment of an hon­or guard to man­age the cas­ket’s cer­e­mo­ni­al trans­port. Stephen McDaniel remarked on the rapid orga­ni­za­tion, call­ing it unbe­liev­able that such a grand trib­ute was arranged in just a week.

The com­mem­o­ra­tion of Lewis’s life marked an unprece­dent­ed event for a U.S. con­gress­man, eclips­ing the farewells of even the most sig­nif­i­cant civ­il rights fig­ures in recent mem­o­ry. Span­ning six days and five cities, the cer­e­monies includ­ed speak­ers such as Lewis’s fam­i­ly and for­mer pres­i­dents, attract­ing exten­sive media cov­er­age.

Lewis’s life cel­e­bra­tion com­menced on July 25 with a cer­e­mo­ny at Troy Uni­ver­si­ty, the seg­re­gat­ed insti­tu­tion he once attempt­ed to enroll in. An evening trib­ute fol­lowed at Brown Chapel in Sel­ma, with the next day fea­tur­ing the “Final Cross­ing.” His cas­ket was car­ried over the his­toric Pet­tus Bridge, sym­bol­iz­ing the strug­gles faced there, as sup­port­ers paid respects along the route. The cer­e­mo­ny moved to Mont­gomery, where Lewis lay in state at the Alaba­ma capi­tol.

After­ward, in Wash­ing­ton, his cas­ket was placed on the Capi­tol’s catafalque. Despite the occa­sion’s grav­i­ty, Pres­i­dent Trump opt­ed not to attend or issue a state­ment. The pro­ces­sion con­clud­ed in Atlanta, where sig­nif­i­cant cul­tur­al ref­er­ences to Lewis, includ­ing murals and trib­utes, high­light­ed his life­long advo­ca­cy for equal­i­ty.

The funer­al at Ebenez­er Bap­tist Church includ­ed notable atten­dees and speak­ers, includ­ing for­mer pres­i­dents Clin­ton, Oba­ma, and Bush, who eulo­gized Lewis’s courage and ded­i­ca­tion to civ­il rights. A poignant moment arose as twelve-year-old Tybre Faw recit­ed Lewis’s favorite poem, “Invic­tus,” illus­trat­ing the endur­ing spir­it of resilience that defined Lewis’s life.

Lewis was buried next to Lil­lian at South-View Ceme­tery, con­tin­u­ing to inspire through trib­utes and leg­isla­tive hon­ors, includ­ing a renewed push for vot­ing rights named after him. As Amer­i­ca faced chal­lenges dur­ing the pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, Lewis’s lega­cy spot­light­ed the urgent neces­si­ty for civic par­tic­i­pa­tion, marked by an appeal to hon­or him through active vot­ing. His spir­it res­onat­ed in the elec­tion’s out­comes, sug­gest­ing that even in death, Lewis’s impact on democ­ra­cy and civ­il rights remained pro­found­ly influ­en­tial.