John Lewis: Civil Rights Hero and 17-Term Georgia Congressman Dies at 80

John Lewis was an American civil rights leader and politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia for 17 terms. Born on February 21, 1940, near Troy, Alabama, the son of sharecroppers, he became one of the most respected moral voices in the nation.

Lewis took part in the Nashville sit-ins and was one of the original 13 Freedom Riders in 1961. He chaired the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1963 to 1966 and was the youngest of the "Big Six" organizers of the 1963 March on Washington. On March 7, 1965, "Bloody Sunday," he led marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where state troopers beat him and fractured his skull.

Lewis represented Georgia's 5th district from 1987 to 2020 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011. His memoir Walking with the Wind and the graphic novel trilogy March, which won a National Book Award in 2016, told his story. He married Lillian Miles in 1968, and she died in 2012. He was diagnosed with stage IV pancreatic cancer in December 2019 and died in Atlanta on July 17, 2020, at age 80.

Achievements: One of the original Freedom Riders (1961), chaired SNCC (1963-1966), led the Selma march (1965), U.S. Representative (1987-2020), Presidential Medal of Freedom (2011).

Birth: February 21, 1940 - near Troy, Pike County, Alabama.

Profession: Civil rights leader and congressman.

Interesting Facts: He was the last surviving speaker from the 1963 March on Washington. He urged people to make "good trouble, necessary trouble."