“Generations from now,” said Obama, presenting the 2010 medal of freedom to Lewis, “when parents teach their children what is meant by courage, the story of John Lewis will come to mind – an American who knew that change could not wait for some other person or some other time whose life is a lesson in the fierce urgency of now. He saw the movement as another chapter in the cause that was his life’s work, inspiring countless younger men and women. In one of his final media appearances after being diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer, he walked a street near the White House painted with a Black Lives Matter mural. Lewis refused to attend Trump’s inauguration or State of the Union addresses. He lived to see the election of the US’s first black president, Barack Obama, then a racial backlash in the form of Donald Trump, and then an eruption of mass protests against racial injustice that both echoed and dwarfed the marches of the 1960s. John Lewis is presented with the Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2010. He fought many losing policy battles but, even as an old lion in his 70s, he was leading a sit-in protest in the House chamber demanding tougher gun controls. Visitors to his office, brimming with photographs and memorabilia, were treated to anecdotes, humility and wisdom in his soft, slow southern lilt. He took the battle for equality to the halls of Washington, winning a seat in the House of Representatives in 1986 and becoming known as the conscience of the US Congress, where he represented a Georgia district for 33 years. But something about that day in Selma touched a nerve deeper than anything that had come before.” A campaign is under way to rename the bridge after Lewis, who returned there often. Lewis wrote in his memoirs: “The American public had already seen so much of this sort of thing, countless images of beatings and dogs and cursing and hoses. Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in December 2019. John Lewis remembers 'Bloody Sunday' in Selma – video report (1940-2020) Who Was John Lewis John Lewis grew up in an era of racial segregation. What you need to know John Lewis, a civil rights icon and longtime US congressman, has died. This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason.
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