Civil Rights icon Congressman John Lewis is dead at 80, Lewis the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom from then president Barack Obama and the son of sharecroppers who rose to become one of the most distinguished and respected members of Congress....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest

Former United States president Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, bestows the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Georgia Congressman John Lewis in 2011, Lewis also a Civil Rights icon who marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  A Georgia Democrat and senior member of Congress, Lewis died July 17, 2020 after a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman trained for 17 years as a reporter with the Call and Post Newspaper and is an investigative and political reporter with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.

THE JOHN LEWIS STORY

ATLANTA, Georgia –Rep. John Lewis, the son of sharecroppers who was beaten and brutalized as a young Black community activist during now historic voting rights protests in Selma and was one of the most respected and distinguished members of Congress, has died at 80-years-old following a six-month battle with pancreatic cancer.

Lewis' passing is a tremendous loss to the Black community and the fight for democracy and equal opportunity across the board, pundits and admirers said Friday. 

His family members are grieving the loss too.

"It is with inconsolable grief and enduring sadness that we announce the passing of U.S. Rep. John Lewis," the Lewis family said in a statement. "He was honored and respected as the conscience of the U.S. Congress and an icon of American history, but we knew him as a loving father and brother."

Funeral arrangements are pending.

Former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young, also a former ambassador to the United Nations, described his friend and political colleague as fearless and "always available until his death."

Though it was announced a few months ago that the activist  and community organizer-turned federal lawmaker who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma to push for the passage of the Voting Rights Act, and was later elected to  Congress had metastasis cancer, the news of his death Friday night stunned America as it struggles with a New Civil Rights Movement that has resurrected itself in the midst of a crippling pandemic. 

A former Georgia state legislator out of Atlanta and 17-term Democratic Congressman who represented Georgia's 5th congressional district, Lewis was a native of Troy Alabama.

His great grandfather was born into slavery. 

He lost his first bid for Congress and later won the seat in 1986 against his Republican challenger, and following a contentious and now infamous fight against Julian Bond during the Democratic primary he later won, Bond a  prominent Black Georgia state senator at the time.  

During that  primary campaign contest against Bond Lewis said then that "if you know anything about be my vote is not up for sale and my vote cannot be bought," a reference against Bond, whose campaign was dogged with accusations of drug use, accusations Lewis highlighted during the campaign. 

Lewis said later that if given the choice again he would have approached the campaign differently, he and Bond, who died in 2015, later reconciling. 

One of 10 siblings, he was 16-years-old when he fought to desegregate public libraries in Troy and against Jim Crow Laws.

While in college in Nashville studying theology on a  scholarship he was a member of the activist  student group the Freedom Riders that fought against racial segregation and to desegregate lunch counters in the city and became a symbol of the student movement for racial equality.

He said that that his true activism was  inspired by  the Montgomery Bus Boycotts that took place when he was 18-years-old, and the sermons of Dr King on the radio. 

He fought with King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference that King led during the height of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and spoke at the March on Washington in 1963 in spite of fears by then president John F. Kennedy that his speech might be too radical.

At 23-years-old he was the youngest speaker at the event in Washington, and gave a dynamic speech, pundits said, a speech  overshadowed by Dr. King's historic "I Have a A Dream Speech."

He was arrested for civil disobedience more that 44 times, 40 of those arrests occurring before he was elected to Congress.

He returned to Selma each year for anniversary festivities and to remember "Bloody Sunday."

A recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 from former president Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, and a minster of the gospel whose legacy will remain of an unmatched stature, Lewis never stopped fighting for justice for the underprivileged and the disenfranchised.

One of his last public appearances was a town hall with Obama.

A husband and father, Lewis loved Black people, unequivocally. 

He was married to his wife Lillian for nearly 50 years, and until her death in 2012. 

Whether fighting for public policy changes for his constituents in particular, or for the country as a whole, overtime he drew the love and respect of his fellow lawmakers.

He was a biblical figure on a mission, and in spite of his stubbornness at times he had friends and enemies across partisan lines.

But he was also a staunch Democrat who despised the policies of President Donald Trump, Trump a Republican who faces former president Joe Biden for a Nov. 3 presidential election showdown. 

He was one of the first members of Congress to aggressively stand up against the Trump presidency, and he never backed down. 

Considered a hard- core liberal in Congress by some accounts, Lewis opposed the U.S  waging of the 1991 Gulf War, and the Clinton Administration on NAFTA and welfare reform.

The federal lawmaker fought against the reversal of decades of Civil Rights gains and spoke out against the U.S. Supreme Court's 2013 decision in Shelby County vs Holder, a decision in which the high court invalidated key provision of the Voting Rights Act, thereby  lessening  government over watch of state voting rules and making it easier for state officials to make it harder for Black and other racio- ethic minority voters to vote.

During his 30-plus years in Congress  representing  a district in the seep South Lewis opposed the Iraq War and also fought in Congress for public policies in support  of voting rights, reproductive rights for women, affirmative action, gun control, human and Civil Rights, universal healthcare and the gamete of issues embraced by the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.

He backed same sex marriage which became legal across all 50 states and the District of Columbia in 2015. 

His legacy, however, transcends the Democratic Party that he had no problem challenging on matters he deemed necessary to address.

The National Museum of African American History opened on the National Mall in Washington D.C. in 2016 during Obama's tenure, Lewis the impetus for the congressional bill that led to funding for the historical monument. 

Lewis ultimately supported Obama for the Democratic primary in 2008 that Obama won over Hillary Clinton, and he backed him again in 2012 for his successful reelection campaign for president.

Obama praised the congressman when he was on his deathbed.

If there’s one thing I love about @RepJohnLewis, it’s his incomparable will to fight," Obama tweeted after learning that Lewis had terminal cancer. "I know he’s got a lot more of that left in him. Praying for you, my friend."

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.