Civil Rights Leader and U.S. Congressman John Lewis Dead at 80

The civil rights legend, John Robert Lewis, died on July 17, 2020, after a six-month battle with cancer; he was 80 years old.

In a statement, his family said, “It is with inconsolable grief and enduring sadness that we announce the passing of U.S. Rep. John Lewis. He was honoured and respected as the conscience of the U.S. Congress and an icon of American history, but we knew him as a loving father and brother. He was a stalwart champion in the on-going struggle to demand respect for the dignity and worth of every human being. He dedicated his entire life to non-violent activism and was an outspoken advocate in the struggle for equal justice in America. He will be deeply missed.”

Before his death, John Lewis was diagnosed with four-stage of pancreatic cancer in December 2019.

 “I have been in some kind of fight — for freedom, equality, basic human rights — for nearly my entire life. I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now,” he said at the time.

During his illness period, he described the death of George Floyd in an interview. In his words, he said, “The way this young man died, watching the video, it made me so sad. It was so painful. It made me cry. I kept saying to myself, how many more? How many more young black men will be murdered? The madness must stop.”

Lewis, who was born in Troy, Alabama, United States, was an American politician and a longtime democratic congressman, serving for Georgia’s 5th congressional district from 1987 until his death in 2020. 

The civil right leader has led different protests to fulfilling civil rights and end legalized racial segregation in the United States. He led the Selma to Montgomery marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, which was later known as Bloody Sunday. 

Lewis was also part of the organizers, and leaders of the group who led the March on Washington protest in 1963.

“Sometimes, when I look back and think about it, how did we do what we did? How did we succeed? We didn’t have a website. We didn’t have a cellular telephone,” Lewis has said of the civil right movement “But I felt when we were sitting in at those lunch counter stools, or going on the Freedom Ride, or marching from Selma to Montgomery, there was a power and a force. God Almighty was there with us.”

Lewis went through lots of beatings and attacks but never lost his hope in civil rights freedom, taking it from protests to politics. 

At least 21 states flying flags were at half-staff for Lewis. The states flags are; Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, West Virginia.

Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn said on the passing away of John Lewis.

I was prepared for this,” Clyburn said of his “personal friend” and colleague. “But nevertheless, it is something that gives you a strange emptiness. Knowing full well that I will return to Washington, I won’t see him, and I will never get to sit with him again.”

United States President, Donald Trump, said he is saddened to hear the news of the hero, John Lewis.

Obama described Lewis in a statement, as a patriot that he risked his life and his blood for his country so that it might live up to its promise.

“We now all have our marching orders,” Obama said, “to keep believing in the possibility of remaking this country we love until it lives up to its full promise.”

Politicians, former presidents and notable men and women pay tributes to the civil right legend, John Lewis.