"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," his family said in a statement. "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 diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer last year. He represented Georgia's 5th Congressional District, which includes much of Atlanta, for more than 30 years.
In the 1960s, Lewis was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. It was one of the groups that organized the 1963 March on Washington, and Lewis was the youngest keynote speaker at the historic event.
In 1965, Lewis helped organize the Selma to Montgomery marches, which were held to protest discriminatory practices that prevented many Black people from voting in the South. He suffered a fractured skull when Alabama state troopers used brutal force to break up the march.
By his own count, Lewis was arrested more than 40 times during his days of civil rights activism.
Lewis addresses the crowd during the 1963 March on Washington. Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images
Lewis has tape on his head, marking the spot where he was struck during racial violence in Montgomery, Alabama, in May 1961. That month, the Freedom Ride movement began with interstate buses driving into the Deep South to challenge segregation that persisted despite recent Supreme Court rulings. In some cities, the activists were arrested and brutally beaten. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
John Lewis and his wife, Lillian, attend a campaign rally in Atlanta in April 1977. He was running for Congress but lost the Democratic primary that year to Wyche Fowler Jr. Dwight Ross Jr./AP
John Lewis is joined by Pelosi and US Reps. Jim Clyburn and Joe Crowley as Democrats sing a song outside the US Capitol in June 2016. Democrats were closing out a marathon sit-in on the House floor after 25 hours of emotionally charged speeches demanding action on gun control. Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images
John Lewis prepares to pay his respects to US Rep. Elijah Cummings, who was lying in state in October 2019. Melina Mara/Pool/Getty Images
4:10 a.m. ET, July 18, 2020
Who was John Lewis?
Civil rights activist and Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. is introduced before speaking at the unveiling of a U.S. Postal Service stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, on Friday, August 23, 2013, in Washington, DC. Charles Dharapak/AP
Tributes are pouring in to mark the passing of John Robert Lewis, a towering figure of the civil rights movement and a longtime US congressman, who has died after a six-month battle with cancer. He was 80.
Who was Lewis? 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.
Lewis was the son of sharecroppers who survived a brutal beating by police during a landmark 1965 march in Selma, Alabama.
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.
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.
In 2011, after more than 50 years on the front lines of the civil rights movement, Lewis received the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, placed round his neck by America's first black president.
3:27 a.m. ET, July 18, 2020
Congressional Black Caucus: "The world has lost a legend"
Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and members of the Congressional Black Caucus wait to enter the memorial services of U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, on October 24, 2019. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/Pool/Getty Images)
The US Congressional Black Caucus has mourned the loss of civil rights hero John Lewis in a statement released Friday.
"The world has lost a legend; the civil rights movement has lost an icon, the City of Atlanta has lost one of its most fearless leaders, and the Congressional Black Caucus has lost our longest serving member," it said. "The Congressional Black Caucus is known as the Conscience of the Congress. John Lewis was known as the conscience of our caucus."
2:55 a.m. ET, July 18, 2020
Mitch McConnell: "Our nation will never forget this American hero"
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has called John Lewis a "pioneering civil rights leader," saying the 80-year-old put his life on the line to "fight racism, promote equal rights, and bring our nation in to greater alignment with its founding principles."
In a statement mourning Lewis' death, McConnell recalled joining hands as members of Congress and singing "We Shall Overcome" at a 2008 ceremony honoring civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
"It could not have been more humbling to consider what he had suffered and sacrificed so those words could be sung in that place," he said. "Dr. King famously said 'the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.' but progress is not automatic. 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."
10:36 a.m. ET, July 18, 2020
Barack Obama: Lewis "will continue, even in his passing, to serve as a beacon"
Former President Barack Obama said John Lewis will "continue, even in his passing, to serve as a beacon" in America's journey towards a more perfect union.
"He loved this country so much that he risked his life and his blood so that it might live up to its promise. And through the decades, he not only gave all of himself to the cause of freedom and justice, but inspired generations that followed to try to live up to his example," he said in a statement following Lewis' passing.
Read Obama's full statement:
"America is a constant work in progress. What gives each new generation purpose is to take up the unfinished work of the last and carry it further — to speak out for what’s right, to challenge an unjust status quo, and to imagine a better world.
John Lewis — one of the original Freedom Riders, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the youngest speaker at the March on Washington, leader of the march from Selma to Montgomery, Member of Congress representing the people of Georgia for 33 years — not only assumed that responsibility, he made it his life’s work. He loved this country so much that he risked his life and his blood so that it might live up to its promise. And through the decades, he not only gave all of himself to the cause of freedom and justice, but inspired generations that followed to try to live up to his example.
Considering his enormous impact on the history of this country, what always struck those who met John was his gentleness and humility. Born into modest means in the heart of the Jim Crow South, he understood that he was just one of a long line of heroes in the struggle for racial justice. Early on, he embraced the principles of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience as the means to bring about real change in this country, understanding that such tactics had the power not only to change laws, but to change hearts and minds as well.
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.
I first met John when I was in law school, and I told him then that he was one of my heroes. Years later, when I was elected a U.S. Senator, I told him that I stood on his shoulders. When I was elected President of the United States, I hugged him on the inauguration stand before I was sworn in and told him I was only there because of the sacrifices he made. And through all those years, he never stopped providing wisdom and encouragement to me and Michelle and our family. We will miss him dearly.
It's fitting that the last time John and I shared a public forum was at a virtual town hall with a gathering of young activists who were helping to lead this summer’s demonstrations in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Afterwards, I spoke to him privately, and he could not have been prouder of their efforts — of a new generation standing up for freedom and equality, a new generation intent on voting and protecting the right to vote, a new generation running for political office. I told him that all those young people — of every race, from every background and gender and sexual orientation — they were his children. They had learned from his example, even if they didn’t know it. They had understood through him what American citizenship requires, even if they had heard of his courage only through history books.
Not many of us get to live to see our own legacy play out in such a meaningful, remarkable way. John Lewis did. And thanks to him, we now all have our marching orders — to keep believing in the possibility of remaking this country we love until it lives up to its full promise."
2:26 a.m. ET, July 18, 2020
Elizabeth Warren: Lewis was "the moral compass of our nation"
US Sen. Elizabeth Warren has called John Lewis a "true American hero" and "the moral compass of our nation" following the civil rights icon's death.
"May his courage and conviction live on in all of us as we continue to make good trouble for justice and opportunity," she added. "Rest in power, John."
2:04 a.m. ET, July 18, 2020
He dressed up at Comic-Con. He preached to chickens. He's the John Lewis you don't know
From CNN's John Blake
Talk to anyone who has known John Lewis for any length of time and you'll eventually hear the story about him preaching to the chickens.
It goes something like this: Lewis was a shy black kid with a stutter who was determined to be a preacher while growing up in rural Alabama during the Jim Crow era. He'd practice his calling by going to the henhouse on his family's farm and delivering sermons to his captive flock.
Lewis -- whose family called him "Robert," his middle name -- grew so attached to his feathered congregation that he conducted chicken weddings, baptisms and even eulogized chicken funerals. When his chickens were unavailable for worship, he would corral his younger siblings and cousins and preach to them. They nicknamed him "Preacher."
The Georgia congressman, who died at the age of 80 on Friday, has told the chicken story so much that when a friend invited him to deliver some brief remarks at a reunion of civil rights leaders, he teased Lewis with a warning.
"We told him, 'Forget the chicken. We heard the chicken stories,'" says Larry Rubin, a former field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), who worked alongside Lewis. "'You only have five minutes. That chicken story takes 10 minutes.'"
Nancy Pelosi: Lewis was "one of the greatest heroes of American history"
John Lewis is joined by Nancy Pelosi and US Reps. Jim Clyburn and Joe Crowley as Democrats sing a song outside the US Capitol in June 2016. Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has called John Lewis "one of the greatest heroes of American history" and "the conscience of the Congress" in a statement mourning his passing.
“John Lewis was a titan of the civil rights movement whose goodness, faith and bravery transformed our nation – from the determination with which he met discrimination at lunch counters and on Freedom Rides, to the courage he showed as a young man facing down violence and death on Edmund Pettus Bridge, to the moral leadership he brought to the Congress for more than 30 years," she wrote.
“In the Congress, John Lewis was revered and beloved on both sides of the aisle and both sides of the Capitol. All of us were humbled to call Congressman Lewis a colleague, and are heartbroken by his passing. May his memory be an inspiration that moves us all to, in the face of injustice, make ‘good trouble, necessary trouble.'"
1:31 a.m. ET, July 18, 2020
Fast facts about John Lewis
Civil rights activist and Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. is introduced before speaking at the unveiling of a U.S. Postal Service stamp commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, on Aug. 23, 2013, at the Newseum in Washington. Charles Dharapak/AP
Here's a look at the life of US Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil rights leader.
Personal
Birth date: February 21, 1940
Birth place: Troy, Alabama
Birth name: John Robert Lewis
Father: Eddie Lewis, sharecropper
Mother: Willie Mae (Carter) Lewis
Marriage: Lillian Miles Lewis (December 21, 1968-December 31, 2012, her death)
March 7, 1965: Helps organize a voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery and is among 600 demonstrators attacked by police. This day becomes known as Bloody Sunday.
March 21-25, 1965: Joins over 3,000 demonstrators marching from Selma to Montgomery, this time under the protection of federal troops. The size of the group reaches 25,000 by the time they reach Montgomery.
1966: Co-founds the Southern Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam.
1966-1967: Associate director of the Field Foundation.
1967-1970: Community organization director for the Southern Regional Council.
1970-1977: Director of the Voter Education Project.
1977-1980: Associate director of ACTION, a federal volunteer agency. Appointed by President Jimmy Carter.
1988: Lewis' memoir, "Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement," is published.
March 7, 2004: The John R. Lewis Monument is unveiled in Selma, Alabama, at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge to commemorate the events of Bloody Sunday.
April 27, 2009: Arrested outside the Embassy of Sudan, where he is protesting the obstruction of aid to refugees in Darfur.
February 15, 2011: President Barack Obama awards Lewis the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
August 2013: Top Shelf Productions publishes "March: Book One." The graphic novel is the first of a planned trilogy, written by Lewis and Andrew Aydin, and illustrated by Nate Powell.
January 2015: Top Shelf Productions publishes "March: Book Two."
June 22, 2016: Lewis leads a sit-in on the House floor to protest inaction on gun control and try to push a vote preventing people on the terrorist watch list from buying guns. The demonstration draws 170 lawmakers. After about 25 hours, Democrats decide to end the sit-in, but vow to continue when Congress returns for their next session.
August 2016: Top Shelf Productions publishes "March: Book Three."
January 13, 2017:In an interview with NBC News, Lewis says he does not view President-elect Donald Trump as a legitimate president due to evidence of Russian meddling during the run-up to the election. He says he will not attend the inauguration -- the second time he's boycotted an inauguration in protest. In 2001, he declined to attend the inauguration of George W. Bush, who won a close election after the Supreme Court halted a recount in Florida. Bush won the Electoral College even though Vice President Al Gore topped him in the popular vote.
January 14, 2017: Trump criticizes Lewis in a threaded tweet, "Congressman John Lewis should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk - no action or results. Sad!" Lewis responds with a statement encouraging donors to pledge money to the Democratic National Committee, adding: "Today, Donald Trump attacked me on Twitter. He said that I'm 'all talk' and 'no action.' I've been beaten bloody, tear-gassed, fighting for what's right for America. I've marched at Selma with Dr. King. Sometimes that's what it takes to move our country in the right direction."
July 28, 2018: Becomes ill while on a flight to Atlanta. Spends one night in hospital for undisclosed reasons and is released the next day with a "clean bill of health," according to his spokeswoman.
December 29, 2019: In a statement, Lewis announces he has stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
