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Nashville to host dedication to civil rights icon John Lewis

FILE - This Nov. 18, 2016 file photo shows Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., in the Civil Rights Room in the Nashville Public Library in Nashville, Tenn. Some last thoughts from Lewis will be published this summer. Grand Central Publishing announced Tuesday that Lewis' "Carry On: Reflections for a New Generation" will come out July 13, almost a year after he died at age 80. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
FILE - This Nov. 18, 2016 file photo shows Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., in the Civil Rights Room in the Nashville Public Library in Nashville, Tenn. Some last thoughts from Lewis will be published this summer. Grand Central Publishing announced Tuesday that Lewis' "Carry On: Reflections for a New Generation" will come out July 13, almost a year after he died at age 80. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File) FILE - This Nov. 18, 2016 file photo shows Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., in the Civil Rights Room in the Nashville Public Library in Nashville, Tenn. Some last thoughts from Lewis will be published this summer. Grand Central Publishing announced Tuesday that Lewis' "Carry On: Reflections for a New Generation" will come out July 13, almost a year after he died at age 80. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

By Associated Press 1 min read

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (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.