Final farewells to Rep. Elijah Cummings begin in native Baltimore
Constituents, friends and other mourners are set to gather at a historically black college in Baltimore to honor the life of U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings in the first of a series of planned services.
The Maryland congressman and civil rights champion died Thursday of complications from long-standing health issues.
Cummings will lie in repose Wednesday at Morgan State University. A tribute service will follow the public viewing. It will include remarks from his wife, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes and Baltimore Mayor Bernard "Jack" Young.
The university is in the congressional district Cummings represented since 1996. He also served on the school's Board of Regents for 19 years.
A sharecropper's son, Cummings led one of the U.S. House committees leading an impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. On Thursday, Cummings will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol where his former colleagues will honor his legacy as a defender of Civil Rights and the Constitution, joining a distinguished list of people to receive the honor.
