John Lewis, the civil rights hero and US Democratic congressman, has died at the age of 80.
Lewis, who was born on 21 February 1940 in Alabama, became a prominent leader of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. A founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he became its chair in 1963, and helped organised the March on Washington, when Martin Luther King Jr delivered his “I have a dream” speech.
In 1965, his skull was fractured by Alabama state troopers as he and others led marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, during the Selma to Montgomery protest marches for voting rights.
Dan Rather (@DanRather)The news hits deep. And to the core. John Lewis dead. Can it really be? He had strength, courage, and heart enough for many lifetimes. We were young once. So many memories. So much distance traveled. So much further to go. Farewell my friend. We shall overcome someday.
July 18, 2020
Lewis was elected as the congressman for Georgia’s 5th district in 1987 and held the office until his death. He announced he was being treated for stage 4 pancreatic cancer in December last year.
“I have been in some kind of fight – for freedom, equality, basic human rights – for nearly my entire life,” he said at the time. “I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed Lewis had died from pancreatic cancer in a statement on Friday night.
More to come…
source https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/18/john-lewis-us-civil-rights-hero-and-democratic-congressman-dies-at-80
0 تعليقات