Civil Rights Leader & Congressman John Lewis Passes Away At 80

Source: SAUL LOEB / Getty

Atlanta Congressman and Civil Right leader John Lewis has passed away after a long battle with stage IV pancreatic cancer. Lewis, who was 80 years old was the U.S. Representative for Georgia’s 5th congressional district, serving in 17 terms in the House. During the ’60s in the high time of the civil rights struggle, Lewis was one of the original Freedom Riders and fought alongside Martin Luther King Jr. during the Civil Rights Movement.

He helped organize the March On Washington and also spoke at the March as one of the Keynote speakers. He also helped lead the 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, which helped introduce the voting rights bill of 1964. Atlanta and the world has lost a legend.

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