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Congress votes to name post office after Alabama civil rights icon

Alabama Public Radio | By Pat Duggins

Published September 23, 2022 at 10:08 AM CDT

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FILE - Former Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 11, 2017. New York’s governor signed the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act, named after the late civil rights activist who represented Georgia in the U.S. House, into law Monday, June 20, 2022, intended to prevent local officials from enacting rules that might suppress people’s voting rights because of their race. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

A bill to name Atlanta's main post office after the late U.S. Congressman John Lewis is close to becoming law. The measure passed the U.S. Senate unanimously this week. President Joe Biden must sign it to make the measure official. The facility is south of downtown Atlanta near the airport. Lewis was best known for leading protesters in the 1965 Bloody Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Lewis was knocked to the ground and beaten by state troopers. Lewis died in 2020 at age 80 after announcing he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He represented Georgia's fifth Congressional District, centered in Atlanta, from 1987 until his death.