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WASHINGTON - John Robert Lewis, a champion of civil rights for African Americans and longtime U.S. lawmaker, has died. He was 80. The veteran congressman died Friday after a yearlong battle with advanced pancreatic cancer.

John Lewis rose to fame as a leader of the modern-day American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. At age 23, he worked closely with Martin Luther King Jr. and was the last surviving keynote speaker from the August 1963 March on Washington where King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. During the historic gathering, Lewis reminded America of the power of the civil rights movement.

“By the force of our demands, our determination, and our numbers, we shall splinter the segregated South into a thousand pieces and put them together in the image of God and democracy.  We must say: ‘Wake up America!  Wake up!’ For we cannot stop, and we will not and cannot be patient,” said Lewis, overlooking a crowd of 250,000.

Former U.S. President Barack Obama said, “In so many ways, John’s life was exceptional. But he never believed that what he did was more than any citizen of this country might do. He believed that in all of us, there exists the capacity for great courage, a longing to do what’s right, a willingness to love all people, and to extend to them their God-given rights to dignity and respect. And it’s because he saw the best in all of us that he will continue, even in his passing, to serve as a beacon in that long journey towards a more perfect union.”

From humble beginnings to a civil rights leader

Born February 21, 1940, outside Troy, Alabama, John Lewis was the son of sharecroppers who grew up in the racially segregated South. He was not able to vote, enroll in college or obtain a public library card because he was Black.

Determined to be a part of the struggle for equal rights, Lewis graduated from Fisk University in Nashville in 1963 with a degree in religion and philosophy.

As a student, he organized sit-in demonstrations at segregated “Whites Only” lunch counters and staged bus boycotts. Lewis was one of the 13 original “Freedom Riders” beaten and arrested for riding alongside white passengers on interstate buses in the South.

Two years later, as chairman of the influential Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, he helped register thousands of Black voters in places like Alabama and Mississippi. “I’ve always fought for what was right,” said Lewis.

Life-changing events

As a 25-year-old activist, Lewis was badly beaten by white Alabama state troopers as he and 600 peaceful demonstrators marched for voting rights across the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965. Lewis suffered a fractured skull. Television images of the incident known as “Bloody Sunday” caused a national awakening to end racial discrimination.

“I was beaten bloody and tear-gassed, fighting for what’s right for America. Our country would never ever be the same, because of what happened on this bridge," said Lewis of the history-making event.

Later that year, Lewis stood next to President Lyndon Johnson when he signed the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act. The legislation outlawed discriminatory voting practices that kept Blacks from gaining political power.

Success

The civil rights movement led John Lewis into a career of politics. He was elected to the Atlanta City Council in 1981. Lewis was elected to Congress in 1986, calling it “the honor of a lifetime.” He served 17 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from Georgia’s 5th district.

Sometimes called the “conscience of the Congress,” Lewis fought for income equality for minorities, criminal justice reform, gun safety and health care for all. In recognition of his achievements, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama in 2011.

“Every day of John Lewis’s life was dedicated to bringing freedom and justice to all,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement.  “As he declared 57 years ago during the March on Washington, standing in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial: ‘Our minds, souls, and hearts cannot rest until freedom and justice exist for all the people.’ How fitting it is that even in the last weeks of his battle with cancer, John summoned the strength to visit the peaceful protests where the newest generation of Americans had poured into the streets to take up the unfinished work of racial justice.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “Our great nation’s history has only bent towards justice because great men like John Lewis took it upon themselves to help bend it. Our nation will never forget this American hero.”

While undergoing cancer treatment, he returned to Alabama to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the voting rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. “We must go out and vote like we never, ever voted before,” he said. “I'm not going to give up. I'm not going to give in. We're going to continue to fight. We must use the vote as a nonviolent instrument or tool to redeem the soul of America."

Before his death, Lewis endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination for president in April 2020. In one of his last public statements, the congressman said, “I cannot stand by and watch President (Donald) Trump undo the progress we fought so hard for.”

Lewis’s longtime friend and fellow civil rights activist Jesse Jackson said Lewis will be remembered for risking his life to change America for the better.

Fern Robinson contributed to this story.