John Lewis was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in late 2019. (AFP)
Washington:
John Lewis, the civil rights warrior who died Friday at the age of 80, excelled in what he liked to call “good trouble” – standing up against racial injustice to forge better America.
The African-American icon marched with Martin Luther King Jr., was nearly beaten to death by police, and later a member of Congress was repeatedly arrested for demonstrating against genocide or directing sit- in immigration reform.
“Historically, few are capable of becoming giants,” Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the civil rights icon, told CNN. “John Lewis has truly become a giant because of the examples he has given to all of us.”
Lewis was the son of a sharecropper whose struggles for justice helped define an era and whose moral authority as an indomitable statesman left a permanent mark on Congress.
He was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in late 2019.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted this on Saturday: “Representative John Lewis is an icon of the civil rights movement, and he leaves a lasting legacy that will never be forgotten. We hold his family in our prayers , as we remember from Rep. John Lewis’ incredible contributions to our country. “
The White House flag flew half staff Saturday morning. The President of the Chamber, Nancy Pelosi, also ordered the lowering of the flags at the Capitol.
But Lewis had faced President Donald Trump several times – boycotting his inauguration and citing Russian interference in the 2016 elections to question his legitimacy.
Trump in turn said the Lewis neighborhood in Georgia was “awful” and the congressman was “all talkative” and “no action.”
Risky “life and blood”
Lewis was only 21 when he became a founding member of the Freedom Riders, who fought segregation in the American transportation system in the early 1960s, ultimately becoming one of the nation’s most powerful voices for justice and legality.
He was the youngest leader of the 1963 Washington March, in which King made his famous speech “I have a dream”.
Two years later, Lewis nearly died driving hundreds of walkers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, during a peace march in Montgomery when state soldiers sought to intimidate those who protested for the right to vote for black Americans, attacked protesters.
Lewis suffered a skull fracture that day, which will become “Bloody Sunday”.
Fifty years later, in 2015, he crossed the bridge arm in arm with Barack Obama, the country’s first black president, to mark the anniversary of Selma’s march to Montgomery.
Obama presented Lewis with the Medal of Liberty, one of the country’s highest civilian honors, at a ceremony at the White House in 2011.
“Not many of us live to see our own legacy play out in such a meaningful and remarkable way. John Lewis did it,” Obama tweeted early Saturday.
“He loved this country so much that he risked his life and his blood so that he could keep his promise,” added Obama.
Another civil rights giant also died on Friday.
Reverend CT Vivian organized anti-segregation sit-ins in the 1940s, was one of King’s first advisers, and helped organize the Freedom Rides. He died early Friday at age 95.
“Congress awareness”
John Lewis was born in Troy, Alabama, February 21, 1940, the third of 10 children.
His community was almost entirely black and he quickly learned of the segregation that hit Alabama.
Lewis, who organized sit-ins at separate lunch counters and was arrested two dozen times for nonviolent protests, was one of the founders and possible president of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, where he wrote speech against police brutality and campaigned to register black voters.
He was elected to Congress in 1986 and quickly became a figure of moral authority.
Tributes pour in from both Democrats and Republicans.
“America today mourns the loss of one of the greatest heroes in American history,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the 17-year-old Georgian MP. She described Lewis as “a titan of the civil rights movement”.
And Republican senator Mitt Romney, posting on Twitter, called Lewis a man “an unshakable principle, an unassailable character, a penetrating goal and sincere compassion.”
In recent months, Lewis had stepped away from his congressional office while undergoing cancer treatment.
But he returned to Washington in early June, amid fiery protests after the police assassination of George Floyd in Minneapolis, to walk through Black Lives Matter Plaza, the renowned intersection near the White House that has was the site of protests against injustice.
“The winds are blowing, the big change is coming,” said Lewis a few days earlier during a discussion among breeders.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
