Civil rights legend Rep. John Lewis dead at 80

John Robert Lewis, the son of sharecroppers who survived a brutal beating by police during a landmark 1965 march in Selma, Alabama, to become a towering figure of the civil rights movement and a longtime US congressman, has died after a six-month battle with cancer. He was 80.
Lewis, a Democrat who served as the US representative for Georgia's 5th congressional district for more than three decades, 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., he 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.
"Sometimes when I look back and think about it, how did we do what we did? How did we succeed? We didn't have a website. We didn't have a cellular telephone," Lewis has said of the civil rights movement.
"But I felt when we were sitting in at those lunch counter stools, or going on the Freedom Ride, or marching from Selma to Montgomery, there was a power and a force. God Almighty was there with us."
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.
"We do not want our freedom gradual; we want to be free now," he said at the time.
At age 25, Lewis helped lead a march for voting rights on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where he and other marchers were met by heavily armed state and local police who attacked them with clubs, fracturing Lewis' skull. Images from that "Bloody Sunday" shocked the nation and galvanized support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
"I gave a little blood on that bridge," he said years later. "I thought I was going to die. I thought I saw death."
Despite the attack and other beatings, Lewis never lost his activist spirit, taking it from protests to politics. He was elected to the Atlanta city council in 1981, then to Congress six years later.
#JohnLewis #CNN #News

74 comments

    1. @Larry Cole Why don’t you hurry and get to your lake of fire you claim so openly! You can take your Emperor Orange with you.

    2. John Brown. What is the name of the otherside? Joe Biden said: All men are created by the thing. Ha ha ha ha ha, What is the name of the thing?

  1. One time I saw him with his family in a restaurant on a mother’s day years ago. I didn’t want to say anything because he was clearly eating and having a celebration with his family. He heard my mother say his name and came over to greet us.

    1. @Dan Rush
      Hey don’t joke about hell. He may have got saved during his sickness or he could have asked the Lord into his life on his deathbed.
      I’m not a fan of Lewis but I hope he repented

    2. @Dan Rush It has to be Better than the place trump goes to with his BASE of idiots, how does that feel, to be an IDIOT?

    1. Julie crane go back to your trailer trash home and take care of your 13 kids and your still looking for nine of the fathers

    1. Yes he was an amazing human being. Hopefully we can groom many many more. Please watch my series I married a white guy now 3 racist judges….. PLEASE FOLLOW MY JOURNEY AND SHARE WITH OTHERS. THANKS I ADVANCE!

    1. Dresdan. First time learn from you there is “good trouble.” So COVID-19 is good trouble??? Ha ha ha ha ha ha. What is rest in power? Dead men have power!

  2. So heartbroken😪 I was so happy to see him when He came to DC to see the Black Lives Matter plaza. I thought he looked great. He never relented on his struggles and commitment to justice and equality. His final trip to DC to witness and see in his own eyes was a testimony to his Heroism. Not beating in the head, Not being hosed down, pushed and shoved and being called names by racists, NOT even dieing from cancer stopped this Hero’s life long commitment to justice and equality. Rest in heavenly peace, Mr. Lewis. You are in good comany now; with all the giants that have passed on before you. Please, tell them all their struggles wasn’t in vein. America has come to a reckoning with its passed sins. See.you at the capital. I will stand in the long lines to pay my respect. Thsnk You, Sir.

    1. I went to DC to see him, but as soon as I arrived, a mob yelled “Kill the white man!!!” and I was hit in the head with a brick.

  3. “NEVER BE AFRAID OF GOOD TROUBLE” GOODBYE CIVIL RIGHTS GIANT JOHN R LEWIS. RIP 1940-2020 RIP CT VIVIAN

    1. @Democrats jerk off to Desmond is amazing my oh my, are you just plain stupid enough to think anyone is going to believe you or are you just a troll?

    2. Heb 9:27 NKJV And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,
      Hopefully he knows Christ and more importantly , Christ knows him.
      Luk 13:27 NKJV “But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’

      People this is not a game. Your eternity depends on it.

  4. I was saddened by the news of Mr. Lewis’s death. I loved that he always took a stand and made “good trouble!” We will continue the fight with bravery, truth, and courage.

    1. I like that you plan to continue the fight. Please watch my video series I Married a White Guy. I need help fighting my fight. Any and all help is appreciated.

    2. You’re the only sad one 😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹😹USA is celebrating 🥳🎉🎊🎈

  5. Maybe now Atlanta can elect a Representative that will improve the downward path Atlanta has been on for the last 40 years…

  6. Pelosi walking next to him, arm in arm. Pelosi. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Debbie Wasserman Shultz. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Seth Rich.

    1. @Mueller Time where have you been? America has been expecting you for several years now.

    2. @Ol’ Black Joe Biden I’ve been hanging out with joe McFish fingers in his basement plotting his revenge on corn Pop.

  7. Fox News disabled comments on their John Lewis videos. They know their racist viewers too well.

  8. he will be doing all that can be done through his name and all of his work from this new home of light and love, that he stood for. be of love and not hate.

    1. Jay Ramon you’re right!These People Talking about how great he was are idiots and fools who are easily manipulated by the NWO media!!!

    2. @SuperThunderGoodGuy SCREW HIS LEGACY, 30 PLUS YEARS MAKING HIMSELF RICH BY SELLING OUT TO THE POWERS THAT BE… THEN COME OUT AND GIVE SPEECHES AS IF HE’S ON THE POOR AND “MINORITIES” SIDE… I’M A BLACK SKIN LATINO AND I DON’T CARE FOR HIS SO CALLED LEGACY… GOOD RIDDANCE… HE’LL BE FORGOTTEN IN 6 DAYS…

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