Rep. John Lewis' former Congressional colleagues will be honoring him today at the US Capitol, where he was a congressman for more than 30 years.
Lewis, a Democrat who served as the US representative for Georgia's 5th Congressional District, was widely seen as a moral conscience of Congress because of his decades-long embodiment of nonviolent fight for civil rights.
His passionate oratory was backed by a long record of action that included, by his count, more than 40 arrests while demonstrating against racial and social injustice.
A follower and colleague of Martin Luther King Jr., Lewis participated in lunch counter sit-ins, joined the Freedom Riders in challenging segregated buses and — at the age of 23 — was a keynote speaker at the historic 1963 March on Washington.
In a statement announcing his death last weekend, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said: "Today, America mourns the loss of one of the greatest heroes of American history: Congressman John Lewis, the Conscience of the Congress."
Lewis had vowed to fight the disease after announcing in late December 2019 that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, which was discovered as a result of a routine medical visit and subsequent testing.
"I have been in some kind of fight — for freedom, equality, basic human rights — for nearly my entire life. I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have now," he said in a statement at the time.
Lewis has said King inspired his activism. Angered by the unfairness of the Jim Crow South, he launched what he called "good trouble" with organized protests and sit-ins. In the early 1960s, he was a Freedom Rider, challenging segregation at interstate bus terminals across the South and in the nation's capital.
Once in Washington, he focused on fighting against poverty and helping younger generations by improving education and health care. He also co-wrote a series of graphic novels about the civil rights movement, which won him a National Book Award.
In 2011, after more than 50 years on the front lines of the civil rights movement, Lewis received the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, placed round his neck by America's first Black president, Barack Obama.
Obama said in a statement following Lewis' death that the civil rights icon will "continue, even in his passing, to serve as a beacon" in America's journey towards a more perfect union.
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