U.S. Rep. John Lewis, an iconic pioneer of the civil rights movement who famously shed his blood at the foot of a Selma, Ala., bridge in the fight for Black voting rights and went on to become a 17-term Democratic member of Congress, died Friday. He was 80.
One of the last survivors among leaders of the 1960s civil rights era and members of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s inner circle, Lewis was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer in December.
Fifty years after Bloody Sunday, Lewis marched across the same bridge with the first Black U.S. president, Barack Obama. Earlier this year, Lewis attended the 55th anniversary march — a surprise appearance given his illness.