Civil rights icon John Lewis dead at the age of 80, served with MLK and then in Congress

John Lewis, the civil rights icon and original Freedom Rider who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. at Selma and Washington before serving more than three decades in Congress, died Friday night after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 80.

After serving along side MLK in the 1960s as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Lewis eventually turned to politics and won a seat in Congress in 1986, representing his beloved but adopted hometown of Atlanta for 33 years.  He was diagnosed with cancer in late 2019.

Blessed with a deep booming voice and a gentle spirit of civility, Lewis inspired generations of Americans to embrace the values of racial equality, economic opportunity and civil rights.

Over six decades of public life, Lewis participated in some of the greatest moments of the Civil Rights movement and the struggle for African-American advancement: the 1961 Freedom Riders protests, MLK's 1963 march on Washington, the 1965 march on Selma, Ala., and Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration.

The son of sharecroppers, Lewis quickly won the friendship of Dr. King. He explained his motivation for joining the movement simply. "When growing up, I saw segregation. I saw racial discrimination. I saw those signs that said white men, colored men. White women, colored women. White waiting. And I didn't like it," he said.

His activism came with a heavy cost: During the march on Selma, Lewis was knocked to the ground and beaten by Alabama state troopers, suffering a skull fracture. But he pressed on undaunted, the images of his bloodied colleagues inspiring a nation to end segregation and to begin an end to discrimination.

Though witness to some of the most hateful acts of repression, Lewis relentlessly embraced an optimism that education and dialog could overcome the vitriol and make a better, more tolerant America.

"Through books, through information, we must find a way to say to people that we must lay down the burden of hate. For hate is too heavy a burden to bear," he once said.

Accolades began rolling in as soon as word of Lewis' passing spread across the nation.

"America is a more perfect union because of the blood, sweat, and tears sacrificed by the great John Lewis," House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., said.

Added House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: "John Lewis was a titan of the civil rights movement whose goodness, faith and bravery transformed our nation.”