(CNN) A building at Troy University in Alabama once named for a former governor who was also a Ku Klux Klan leader has been renamed after the late congressman John Lewis . The university announced on Wednesday that its board of trustees voted to rename Bibb Graves Hall after Lewis and, effective immediately, the building will now be known as John Robert Lewis Hall. Lewis was given an honorary doctorate by Troy University in 1989, and he was awarded the Hall-Waters Prize in 2006 for his memoir "Walking with the Wind." I am grateful to the Board of Trustees for choosing to honor this Pike County native with this name change." Lewis was laid to rest in the US Capitol Rotunda, and he is the first Black lawmaker to lay there, according to congressional historiansThe university will soon announce plans for a ceremony to dedicate John Robert Lewis Hall.

Source: CNN August 27, 2020 17:03 UTC