WATCH LIVE: John Lewis, Towering Civil Rights Icon, Memorialized At Atlanta Funeral

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A mourner pauses by the casket of Rep. John Lewis lying in repose at the Georgia state Capitol on Wednesday in Atlanta. Lewis, who carried the struggle against racial discrimination from Southern battlegrounds of the 1960s to the halls of Congress, died on July 17.

John Bazemore/AP

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John Bazemore/AP

Lewis helped organize the 1963 March on Washington and was the last surviving speaker from the event.

On the day of his funeral, The New York Times published an opinion piece penned by the congressman shortly before his death.

Lewis said he was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and hopeful about the next chapter for America.

«Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble, Lewis wrote. «Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.

«That is why I had to visit Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, though I was admitted to the hospital the following day, he added. «I just had to see and feel it for myself that, after many years of silent witness, the truth is still marching on.

The visit in June to the renamed plaza in Washington, D.C., was his final public appearance.

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In this June 7 photo provided by the Executive Office of District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, the mayor and John Lewis look over a section of 16th Street that has been renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington. It would be Lewis’ final public appearance.

Khalid Naji-Allah/AP

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Khalid Naji-Allah/AP

Politics
Civil Rights Icon John Lewis Honored At The U.S. Capitol

Lewis also lay in state at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, the first Black lawmaker to receive that honor. At a ceremony there on Monday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her longtime colleague was respected by members on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers of Congress.

«We knew he always worked on the side of angels, and now we know that he is with them, Pelosi said.

On Sunday, Lewis made one final trip across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., where law enforcement attacked protesters in 1965 as they attempted to cross the bridge. That day has become known as «Bloody Sunday.

Lewis was badly beaten there in 1965, but on Sunday, he was saluted by Alabama state troopers as his casket made its way across the bridge, led by a trail of red rose petals.