ATLANTA:
John Lewis
, a lion of the civil liberties motion whose bloody beating by Alabama state troopers in 1965 assisted galvanize opposition to racial partition, and who went on to a long and well known profession in Congress, died. He was80
Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi verified Lewis’ passing late Friday night, calling him “one of the best heroes of American history.”
“All of us were humbled to call Congressman Lewis an associate, and are heartbroken by his passing,” Pelosi stated. “May his memory be an inspiration that moves us all to, in the face of injustice, make ‘good problem, needed difficulty.”‘
Lewis’s statement in late December 2019 that he had actually been detected with advanced pancreatic cancer _ “I have never ever dealt with a battle quite like the one I have now,” he said _ inspired tributes from both sides of the aisle, and an unstated accord that the likely death of this Atlanta Democrat would represent completion of an era.
Lewis was the youngest and last survivor of the Big Six civil rights activists, a group led by the Rev.
Martin Luther King Jr.
that had the greatest influence on the movement. He was best known for leading some 600 protesters in the Bloody Sunday march throughout the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.
At age 25 _ strolling at the head of the march with his hands embeded the pockets of his tan overcoat _ Lewis was knocked to the ground and beaten by police. His skull was fractured, and nationally televised pictures of the cruelty forced the country’s attention on racial oppression in the South.
Within days, King led more marches in the state, and President L