Rep. John Lewis, Civil Rights Icon, Dies At Age 80
America lost a great man and civil rights icon today!
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Sanjana KaranthHuffPostJuly 17, 2020, 11:32 PM
Rep. John Lewis, the Georgia Democrat known for his significant leadership in Congress and throughout the civil rights movement, died Friday at age 80.
He served Georgia's 5th Congressional District, which encompasses most of Atlanta, and was highly respected on both sides of the political aisle. Lewis was known as the "conscience of Congress."
The congressman announced in December 2019 that he had been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
"I have been in some kind of fight ― for freedom, equality, basic human rights ― for nearly my entire life," Lewis said in a statement at the time. "I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now."
Lewis said at the time that he would continue serving in Congress while he underwent treatment, noting he "may miss a few votes during this period, but with God's grace I will be back on the front lines soon."
In June, six months into his treatment, he told New York magazine that he was feeling better, saying that he has "good days and days not so good."
At the head of the march from Selma to Montgomery on March 25, 1965, nuns, priests and civil rights leaders: The Rev. Arthur Matott (from left), John Lewis (head of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), Andrew Young, Sister Mary Leoline and Theodore Gill. (Photo: Stephen F. Somerstein via Getty Images)
Lewis has been on the front lines of the fight for democracy for most of his life. Born on Feb. 21, 1940, to sharecroppers outside of Troy, Alabama, Lewis grew up attending segregated public schools. After watching the activism that sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and hearing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s words on the radio, Lewis was inspired to join the civil rights movement and fought for voting rights ever since.
As a college student attending Fisk University, Lewis helped organize peaceful sit-in protests at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee. At age 21, he volunteered to be a Freedom Rider — one of the activists who risked their lives challenging segregation throughout the South by sitting in seats reserved for white people. (The protest was inspired by Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her bus seat for a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955.)
Lewis helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and became its chairman during the peak of the civil rights movement from 1963 to 1966. Lewis organized student activism in the movement through SNCC and was eventually considered one of the "Big Six" leaders of the civil rights movement, alongside King.
At 23, Lewis was one of the organizers of and the youngest keynote speaker at the March on Washington in August 1963. He helped launch voter registration drives during the Mississippi Freedom Summer in 1964, yet another example of his determination to bring voting rights to Black people.
Lewis often faced violent consequences for his civil rights leadership. He was repeatedly arrested and beaten by police and angry mobs for challenging Jim Crow segregation in the South and fighting for voting rights.
Alabama state troopers fractured Lewis' skull in March 1965 while he led more than 600 peaceful demonstrators in a voting rights protest across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, during what became known as Bloody Sunday. Media coverage of the cruelty during Bloody Sunday ― and the subsequent successful Selma march in which Lewis walked alongside King ― helped usher in the passage of the Voting Rights Act that year.
Lewis speaks to the media ahead of the House vote on the Voting Rights Advancement Act on Dec. 6, 2019. The bill would restore the full strength of the Voting Rights Act after a 2013 Supreme Court decision gutted it, unleashing widespread voter suppression. (Photo: Mark Wilson via Getty Images)
Lewis was elected to the Atlanta City Council in 1981 and to Congress in 1986. He served as House Democrats' senior chief deputy whip and as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Throughout his congressional career, Lewis fought to enact laws that furthered the civil rights and moral principles that he had championed since he was a young man. He helped campaign for Stacey Abrams, the Democrat who lost the 2018 gubernatorial election in Georgia and has since dedicated her career to fighting for voting rights amid allegations of Black voter suppression in the state.
"I gave a little blood on that bridge in Selma, 53 years ago," Lewis told a crowd at a rally for Abrams just days before the election. "I'm not asking any of you to give any blood. I'm just asking you to go and vote like you never voted before. We have to vote."
Lewis was also unfiltered in his criticism of President Donald Trump and refused to attend the 2018 State of the Union address after Trump characterized Haiti and African nations as "shitholes." The congressman said in May 2019 that if King were alive today, Lewis would tell him that Trump is "a racist" who "doesn't understand the meaning of your life and the significance of the civil rights movement."
Lewis was a strong supporter of impeaching Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, warning that the country he once considered a "beacon of hope" may be "descending into darkness." Before voting to formally impeach the president in December 2019, Lewis delivered an emotional, fiery speech that alluded to his experiences in Washington that helped define the civil rights movement.
"When you see something that is not right, not just, not fair, you have a moral obligation to say something, do something," the civil rights icon said. "Our children and their children will ask us: 'What did you do? What did you say?'"
Lewis held hope for the future of America even through the pandemic and widespread anger over civil rights. As protests erupted nationwide over the police slaying of a Black Minnesota man, George Floyd, Lewis remarked on the sheer scope of the movement.
"I've come in contact with people who feel inspired. They're moved. They've just never been along in a protest — they've never been in a march before — they decided to march with their children and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren and to walk with them," he said in June.
"They're helping to educate and inspire another generation of activists. It's seeing an effect. There can be no turning back; there can be no giving up.
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The loss of Rep John Lewis will be suffered by many.
God speed Mr. Lewis.
The gop badgered him relentlessly in impeachment hearings, I couldn't believe the patience he showed.
This is a huge loss for the country. John Lewis will go down in history as one of the greatest Americans. A true hero.
Absolutely.
I admired him so much. This is a sad moment, but his legacy will long be celebrated.
The world was a better place because of John Lewis. In a world gone nuts, his was a peaceful and loving presence. To say that his absence will be felt for a long time is an understatement.
If Republicans had half the integrity this man had, the Hill would be a much better place. RIP Sir.
May I make it even larger and say, if more people had half the integrity John Lewis had, our world would be a much better place.
Absolutely.
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Don't be impertinent or disrespectful. No wonder the gop does so poorly among minority voters!
John Lewis an American hero, his courage and dignity changed the face of America.
RIP Mr. Lewis.
It amazes me how some people are incapable of saying nothing when they have nothing nice to say about someone who has recently passed. It speaks volumes about their personal character.
Does it also amaze you when people who have nothing good to say about someone can't keep their traps shut?
It depends on the article that was posted. It's exhausting trying to teach some who are challenged the do's and dont's of situations.
It's exhausting trying to cull through comments when so many are just hate-filled rants.
And that doesn't depend on the article.
Guess it says a lot about the character of such folks, right?
He will be missed.
He fought a good fight.
Good for you, pardner!!! I'm very happy to hear you say that...
Yippee?
Take this elsewhere. Don't ruin a memorial article.
He will be missed. He fought a good fight.
In harmony...
Why?
Come on, pardner... We are singing from the same hymnal right now. Get it?
A man of strength and deed. He had the passion to face the hardships that many now would never do, and he did so with grace and dignity. Rest in peace. You will be missed.
Thread #5 has been cleaned up. Perrie has already issued an instruction not to ruin a memorial article. Let's please keep this civil.