Veteran Civil Rights activist and last of the 'Big Six' John Lewis dies at 80 after battling pancreatic cancer
At a time when the US is witnessing movements in support of Black people's right to live gaining prominence, sad news greeted the country. John Lewis, a veteran Democratic Congressman from Georgia and a Civil Rights icon, died on Friday, July 17, according to reports. Aged 80, Lewis had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer late in 2019 and his condition deteriorated over the past week.
While Daily Beast journalist Goldie Taylor reported Lewis' death on Twitter late on Friday night, Louisiana State University Political Science Professor Eugene B Johnson offered his condolences on the social media platform where he praised the late lawmaker for landing in "good trouble" while fighting relentlessly for justice. "Rest In Peace to John Lewis. He spent his entire life fighting for justice and getting into 'good trouble'," Johnson said and added, "It's sad to see Civil Rights Leaders fall, especially while all that they worked for is being threatened."
Lewis’s death comes at a time when race relations in the US have reached a new low in the wake of deaths of a number of Black individuals due to police brutality. The agonizing death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of local cops has been particularly disturbing and added fuel to the fire. The death of Rayshard Brooks last month made it worse.
Born in Troy, Alabama, on February 21, 1940, John Robert Lewis was the third of the 10 children of Willie Mae and Eddie Lewis. Both his parents were sharecroppers in Alabama’s rural Pink County.
Lewis graduated from the American Baptist Theological Seminary, Nashville, and then got a bachelor's degree in Religion and Philosophy from Fisk University, also in Nashville. He was attracted to the Civil Rights Movement as a student. He served as the third chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee between 1963 and 1966. In 1968, Lewis was devastated by the twin deaths of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr with whom he had marched.
In 1987, he became the representative to the House from Georgia's 5th congressional district and was serving his 17th term. Of the 16 terms he got re-elected, Lewis' vote-share fell below 70 percent only once (when he got 69 percent in 1994). The Democratic leader also served as the dean of Georgia’s congressional delegation. His district includes the northern three-fourths of Atlanta where Brooks was shot dead by chasing cops. He attended Brooks' funeral in late June.
Lewis was one of the "Big Six" leaders of outfits that organized the 1963 March on Washington and played a key role in the Civil Rights Movement and its action aiming to put an end to legalized racial discrimination in the US. Lewis, who has been a Chief Deputy Whip since 1991 and Senior Chief Deputy Chief Whip since 2003, has received several honors and awards in his lifetime -- nationally and internationally -- including the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
On December 29 last year, it was revealed that Lewis was undergoing treatment for stage IV pancreatic cancer. His wife Lilian Miles breathed her last in 2012 and has a son named John Miles-Lewis.