Civil rights activist and former Georgia Congressman John Robert Lewis has passed away at the age of 80 after a six-month battle with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. John Lewis, who survived a brutal beating by police during a landmark 1965 march in Selma, Alabama, became a towering figure of the civil rights movement.
Lewis passed away on the same day as civil rights leader Rev. Cordy Tindell "C.T." Vivian, who was 95. The loss of two civil rights icons in one day comes as the United States continues to fight institutional and systemic racism.
The U.S. representative for Georgia's 5th Congressional District was widely seen as a moral conscience of Congress due to his embodiment of nonviolent fight for civil rights. Throughout his long history of participating in demonstrations, Lewis was arrested more than 40 times. Despite these obstacles, his passionate oratory and exemplary leadership sparked a significant change in the fight against racial and social injustice.
As a follower and colleague of Martin Luther King Jr., he took part in counter sit-ins, joined the Freedom Riders in hopes of challenging segregated buses, and was a keynote speaker at the historic 1963 March when he was only 23 years old. He also helped lead a march for voting rights on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where state and local police violently beat him and other marchers. This event galvanized support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Lewis was also a firm believer in forgiveness. He described an incident when, as a young man, he was beaten by Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members after attempting to enter a "white waiting room." "Many years later, in February of '09, one of the men that had beaten us came to my Capitol Hill office -- he was in his 70's, with his son in his 40's -- and he said, 'Mr. Lewis, I am one of the people who beat you and your seatmate'" on a bus, Lewis said, adding the man said he had been a member o the KKK. "He said, 'I want to apologize. Will you accept my apology?'" After accepting his apology, the three hugged each other and cried together. "It is the power in the way of peace, the way of love. We must never ever hate. The way of love is a better way."
More on Congressman John Lewis & Rev. Cordy Tindell "C.T." Vivian
Alana Abramson: "Rep. John Lewis, Civil Rights Icon and 'Conscience of Congress,' Dies at 80"
Lawrence Burnley (The Conversation): "John Lewis and C.T. Vivian belonged to a long tradition of religious leaders in the civil rights struggle"
CNN Politics: "John Lewis Fast Facts"
Emily Davies (The Washington Post): "‘This is what he lived for’: John Lewis remembered at Black Lives Matter Plaza"
History.com Editors: "Greensboro Sit-In"
C.K. Lett (CNN): "Seven things you didn't know about two Medal of Freedom winners"
Kelly McCleary (CNN): "Civil rights icon Rev. C.T. Vivian dies at 95"
Robert D. McFadden (The New York Times): "C.T. Vivian, Martin Luther King’s Field General, Dies at 95"
National Public Radio (NPR): "Civil Rights Leader John Lewis Never Gave Up Or Gave In"
National Public Radio (NPR): "Rev. CT Vivian, A Civil Rights Pioneer, Dies At 95"
David Smith (The Guardian): "John Lewis: from civil rights titan to Black Lives Matter"
Derrick Bryson Taylor (The New York Times): "Who Were the Freedom Riders?"
The Telegraph: "John Lewis: leading civil rights activist and congressman dies aged 80"
Allyson Waller (The New York Times): "Death of John Lewis Fuels Movement to Rename Edmund Pettus Bridge"
Washington University in St. Louis, CNN, AP, and Reuters: "John Lewis remembers 'Bloody Sunday' in Selma – video report"
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