WASHINGTON — The late Representative Elijah E. Cummings, the powerful Democrat whose booming baritone and impassioned cries for decency reverberated through the halls of Congress for more than two decades, made history one final time on Thursday, as the first African-American elected official to lie in state in the United States Capitol. “Perhaps this place and this country would be better served with a few more unexpected friendships,” said a teary-eyed Representative Mark Meadows, the conservative North Carolina Republican whose close friendship with Mr. Cummings, despite their strong political differences, was well known in the Capitol. “I know I’ve been blessed by one.”Political luminaries and lawmakers — including Mr. Cummings’ fellow members of the Congressional Black Caucus, many wearing African kente cloth scarves — poured into the Capitol to witness his coffin draped with an American flag ascend its marble steps, carried by a military honor guard. Al Sharpton came. So did the former House speaker, Paul D. Ryan.

Source: New York Times October 24, 2019 17:48 UTC