Georgia Congressman John Lewis, one of the most prolific voices of the civil rights movement, has died following a months long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 80.
Lewis, whose death on Friday, was confirmed in a statement by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, announced in late December that he had Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, adding that he intended to fight it with the same passion he had used to fight racial injustice.
“He loved this country so much that he risked his life and his blood so that it might live up to its promise,” former President Barack Obama said in paying tribute to a man he called a personal hero. “And through the decades, he not only gave all of himself to the cause of freedom and justice, but inspired generations that followed to try to live up to his example.”
The veteran congressman, who had his skull fractured by Alabama state troopers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, was the last surviving speaker from 1963’s March on Washington.
Congressman John Lewis, Last Surviving Speaker from 1963 March on Washington, dies at 80
