In Chap­ter 28: Invic­tus, the pro­found efforts sur­round­ing the memo­r­i­al ser­vices for Con­gress­man John Lewis are metic­u­lous­ly detailed, show­cas­ing the ded­i­ca­tion of those clos­est to him, espe­cial­ly his long­time aide, Michael Collins. Collins, hav­ing worked with Lewis for years, was tasked with lead­ing the plan­ning for his memo­r­i­al, gath­er­ing a diverse group of peo­ple, includ­ing his con­gres­sion­al staff, close friends, and com­mu­ni­ca­tions pro­fes­sion­als. The memo­r­i­al ser­vices were metic­u­lous­ly orga­nized over the span of sev­er­al days, with Collins and his team address­ing the chal­lenges that arose dur­ing the prepa­ra­tion process. They met vir­tu­al­ly through Zoom calls, dis­cussing var­i­ous logis­tics, from crowd man­age­ment to coor­di­nat­ing with media out­lets to ensure that every aspect of the trib­ute was han­dled with the care and rev­er­ence it deserved. An impor­tant moment in the process was the arrange­ment of an hon­or guard, which was orches­trat­ed by Speak­er Nan­cy Pelosi to over­see the cer­e­mo­ni­al trans­port of Lewis’s cas­ket. Stephen McDaniel, reflect­ing on the fast-paced nature of the plan­ning, expressed awe that such a grand and intri­cate memo­r­i­al could be pre­pared so quick­ly, con­sid­er­ing the mas­sive scale and emo­tion­al depth involved.

The cer­e­monies hon­or­ing Lewis were ground­break­ing, mark­ing a mon­u­men­tal event that spanned over six days and tra­versed five cities, cre­at­ing an unpar­al­leled trib­ute to his life and lega­cy. The ser­vices not only attract­ed numer­ous mourn­ers but also gar­nered the atten­tion of the media, high­light­ing how deeply Lewis had impact­ed Amer­i­can soci­ety and pol­i­tics. Sev­er­al key fig­ures, includ­ing for­mer Pres­i­dents, Lewis’s fam­i­ly mem­bers, and many of his clos­est col­leagues, shared mov­ing reflec­tions on his ded­i­ca­tion to jus­tice, equal­i­ty, and civ­il rights. The jour­ney began in Troy, Alaba­ma, where the first pub­lic cer­e­mo­ny took place at Troy Uni­ver­si­ty, the very insti­tu­tion where Lewis had once been denied admis­sion due to racial seg­re­ga­tion. This sym­bol­ic act began a series of com­mem­o­ra­tive events that paid trib­ute to his courage and his long bat­tle for civ­il rights. The fol­low­ing day, the “Final Cross­ing” cer­e­mo­ny took place in Sel­ma, Alaba­ma, where his cas­ket was car­ried over the Pet­tus Bridge—a poignant loca­tion tied to the his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance of the Civ­il Rights Move­ment. The pro­ces­sion con­tin­ued with anoth­er sig­nif­i­cant stop in Mont­gomery, Alaba­ma, where Lewis lay in state at the Alaba­ma State Capi­tol, before mak­ing its way to Wash­ing­ton, D.C., where his cas­ket was placed on the Capitol’s catafalque.

In Wash­ing­ton, despite the grav­i­ty of the occa­sion, Pres­i­dent Trump chose not to attend or make a state­ment regard­ing Lewis’s death, which stood in stark con­trast to the deep respect shown by so many oth­ers. The cer­e­mo­ny cul­mi­nat­ed in Atlanta, where Lewis’s final rest­ing place was pre­pared beside his late wife, Lil­lian, at South-View Ceme­tery. The funer­al ser­vice at Ebenez­er Bap­tist Church in Atlanta was attend­ed by numer­ous dig­ni­taries, includ­ing for­mer Pres­i­dents Bill Clin­ton, George W. Bush, and Barack Oba­ma, who each shared heart­felt eulo­gies for Lewis, high­light­ing his lega­cy as one of the defin­ing fig­ures of the 20th cen­tu­ry. A par­tic­u­lar­ly emo­tion­al moment occurred when twelve-year-old Tybre Faw, a young man who admired Lewis’s life and work, recit­ed Lewis’s favorite poem, Invic­tus, sym­bol­iz­ing the endur­ing resilience that defined Lewis’s char­ac­ter. The cer­e­mo­ny was not only a farewell to a nation­al hero but also an urgent reminder of the ongo­ing strug­gle for civ­il rights and vot­ing equal­i­ty, a cause that had been dear to Lewis’s heart through­out his life. As the funer­al ser­vice con­clud­ed, the out­pour­ing of sup­port, love, and remem­brance reflect­ed a col­lec­tive deter­mi­na­tion to hon­or Lewis’s work and con­tin­ue his fight for equal­i­ty and jus­tice. Even in his pass­ing, Lewis’s lega­cy remained potent, shap­ing the way future gen­er­a­tions would engage with the press­ing social issues of the time.