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Representative John Lewis revealed he had stage 4 cancer in December2019
Representative John Lewis, a leader in the civil rights movement and later US congressman, has actually died at the age of 80.
Lewis was among the “Big 6” civil liberties leaders, that included Martin Luther King Jr, and assisted arrange the historic 1963 March on Washington.
As a congressman he was a Georgia Democrat, and represented an area which covered the majority of its capital Atlanta.
In December 2019 Lewis revealed that he had been identified with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
” I have actually been in some type of fight – for flexibility, equality, standard human rights – for almost my whole life,” he said in a statement launched at the time. “I have actually never ever dealt with a fight rather like the one I have now.”
Throughout the civil liberties motion, Lewis was one of the founders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and after that became its chairman from 1963 to1966
He co-organised and spoke at the March on Washington for Jobs and Liberty, the rally at which Dr King provided his historical I Have a Dream speech.
Lewis was the last enduring speaker from the march.