SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) — Rep. John Lewis, an icon and true legend of the civil rights movement, died Friday night, according to several reports.
Lewis was a Democrat who played a key role in the civil rights movement and marched with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965 in Selma, Alabama.
He was the youngest and among the last survivor of the Big Six civil rights activists, led by King Jr. who engineered one of the greatest moral protests in history.
Lewis had been suffering from Stage IV pancreatic cancer since December. He was 80.
He was best known for leading some 600 protesters in the 1965 Bloody Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. At the head of the march, Lewis was knocked to the ground and beaten by Alabama state troopers. His skull was fractured.
Televised images forced the country’s attention to racial oppression in the South.
He became a community activist and member of the Atlanta City Council before winning a seat in Congress in 1986. He was also a best-selling author and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, by President Barack Obama.
Rest in power, Rep. John Lewis.
Latest News Headlines: