WASHINGTON - John Lewis, the civil rights warrior who died Friday aged 80, excelled at what he liked to call "good trouble" -- standing up against racial injustice to forge a better United States.
WASHINGTON - John Lewis, the civil rights warrior who died Friday aged 80, excelled at what he liked to call "good trouble" -- standing up against racial injustice to forge a better United States.
Lewis was a sharecropper's son whose fights for justice helped define an era, and whose moral authority as an indomitable elder statesman left a permanent imprint in Congress.White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted on Saturday: "Rep. John Lewis was an icon of the civil rights movement, and he leaves an enduring legacy that will never be forgotten. We hold his family in our prayers, as we remember Rep. John Lewis' incredible contributions to our country.
In a statement announcing he was ordering flags lowered to half staff at the White House and other public buildings and embassies for a day, Trump's only mention of Lewis was to say he was acting "as a mark of respect for the memory and longstanding public service of Representative John Lewis, of Georgia."
Two years later Lewis nearly died while leading hundreds of marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama when state troopers, seeking to intimidate those demonstrating for voting rights for black Americans, attacked.Fifty years later in 2015, he walked across the bridge arm in arm with Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, to mark the march's anniversary.
"He loved this country so much that he risked his life and his blood so that it might live up to its promise," Obama added.Reverend CT Vivian staged anti-segregation sit-ins in the 1940s, was an early advisor to King and helped organize the Freedom Rides. He died early Friday at 95.John Lewis was born in Troy, Alabama on February 21, 1940, the third of 10 children.
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