⁍ Lewis died on the same day as civil rights leader the Rev. Cordy Tindell ‘C.T.’ Vivian, who was 95.
⁍ Lewis had vowed to fight the disease after announcing in late December that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
⁍ Images from that ‘Bloody Sunday’ shocked the nation and galvanized support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
– Civil rights icon and Georgia Rep. John Lewis has died at age 80 after a six-month battle with cancer, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. “It is with inconsolable grief and enduring sadness that we announce the passing of US Rep. John Lewis,” his family said in a statement. “He was honored and respected as the conscience of the US Congress and an icon of American history, but we knew him as a loving father and brother. He was a stalwart champion in the on-going struggle to demand respect for the dignity and worth of every human being. He dedicated his entire life to non-violent activism and was an outspoken advocate in the struggle for equal justice in America. He will be deeply missed.” Lewis was a key figure in the 1965 “Bloody Sunday” march in Selma, Ala., where he was severely beaten by police while leading a march for voting rights. “I gave a little blood on that bridge,’ he said years later. “I thought I was going to die. I thought I saw death.” He was elected to Congress in 1981, then to the Atlanta city council in 1981, then to Congress six years later. He was a Freedom Rider, challenging segregation at interstate bus terminals across the South and in the nation’s
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/15/business/bunkers-new-zealand-intl-hnk/index.html