John Lewis, longtime Georgia congressman and American civil rights legend, died yesterday at the age of 80.
Lewis
announced last December that he had been diagnosed with advanced
pancreatic cancer. “I have never faced a fight quite like the one I have
now,” Lewis said, which is saying something because Lewis had been fighting for justice his entire life.
One of those moments:
In 1965, Lewis led the famous march of 600 protesters across the Edmund
Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL, to demand voting rights. Lewis’s skull was
fractured by police in what came to be known as Bloody Sunday. He was 25
at the time.
A few other notes about such a profound life...
- Lewis was the last surviving speaker of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.
- In 2011, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.
Political leaders and business executives mourned Lewis’s death.
-
Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Lewis was “one of the greatest heroes of American history.”
-
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: “Our
great nation’s history has only bent towards justice because great men
like John Lewis took it upon themselves to help bend it.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook also released a statement on Twitter, saying “John Lewis guided us toward a more righteous world.”
Bottom line, via John Lewis: “When
you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a
moral obligation to do something, to say something, and not be quiet.”
+ To learn more...take an hour to watch this clip of the documentary Eyes on the Prize.
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I AM A REPUBLICAN BORN AND BRED
IN AMERICA .I BELIEVE IN EQUALITY AND JUSTICE AND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.I SERVED IN THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE
MAJORED IN GEOLOGY AND MUSIC AND WENT TO ANGELO STATE IN SAN ANGELO, TEXAS
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