Denied a library card because of the color of his skin, he became an avid reader, and could cite obscure historical dates and details even in his later years. Obama later honored Lewis with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and they marched hand in hand in Selma on the 50th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday attack.President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday praised Lewis as a “giant” who became “the conscience of the nation.”Lewis also worked for 15 years to gain approval for the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Lewis refused to attend Donald Trump's inauguration, “I think the Russians participated in helping this man get elected. "Many times, I warned that war is bloody, costly, and destroys the hopes and dreams of a generation. "We were kneeling" when "they started beating us with nightsticks, trampling us with horses, releasing the tear gas," Lewis recalled in a King and other religious leaders came to Selma after "Bloody Sunday" and "I knew something good was going to happen," Lewis said.
The others, in addition to King, were Whitney Young of the National Urban League; A. Philip Randolph of the Negro American Labor Council; James L. Farmer Jr., of the Congress of Racial Equality; and Roy Wilkins of the NAACP. John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement whose bloody beating by Alabama state troopers in 1965 helped galvanize opposition to racial segregation, and who went on to a long and celebrated career in Congress, died. We must go out and vote like we have never voted before. “I will go to the border. Humble and unfailingly friendly, Lewis was revered on Capitol Hill — but as one of the most liberal members of Congress, he often lost policy battles, from his effort to stop the Iraq War to his defense of young immigrants.He met bipartisan success in Congress in 2006 when he led efforts to renew the Voting Rights Act, but the Supreme Court later invalidated much of the law, and it became once again what it was in his youth, a work in progress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed Lewis’ passing late Friday night, calling He ran for Congress five years later and won, and has represented Georgia's Fifth District ever since.In the 2008 presidential election, Lewis initially supported then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, but by that February had switched his allegiance to then-Sen. Obama, who would become the country's first Black president. "And as the country was engulfed by violent protests in May over the death of His illness didn't stop him from fending off a primary challenge in June. After Obama was inaugurated in 2009, Lewis asked him to sign a picture of the event. John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement whose bloody beating by Alabama state troopers in 1965 helped galvanize opposition to racial segregation, and who went on to a long and celebrated career in Congress, has died. It was a potent speech nonetheless, in which he vowed: “By the forces of our demands, our determination and our numbers, we shall splinter the segregated South into a thousand pieces and put them together in an image of God and democracy.”It was almost immediately, and forever, overshadowed by the words of King, the man who had inspired him to activism.Lewis was born on Feb. 21, 1940, outside the town of Troy, in Pike County, Alabama. Don’t get in the way. "He loved this country so much that he risked his life and his blood so that it might live up to its promise," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., described Lewis as "one of the greatest heroes of American history. We want our freedom and we want our freedom now," Lewis, then 23, Lewis also fought for voting rights, which is what he was championing when he helped lead a group of about 600 across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on March 7, 1965. John Lewis, lion of the civil rights movement, dies at 8017-year-old suspect arrested in fatal shooting of 2 at protestsAlleged gunman Kyle Rittenhouse has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide after at least three people were shot and two killed during the Jacob Blake protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin.If Joe Biden gets elected, we'll 'lose the border': Tom HomanTom Homan on LA sheriff not turning in 25,000 illegal immigrants, the importance of the 2020 electionChina Fires Missiles Into Disputed Sea; U.S. SanctionsAug.26 -- U.S.-China tensions over the South China Sea escalated on Wednesday with Beijing firing four missiles into the disputed waterway and the Trump administration strengthening action against companies that helped set up outposts in the region.