Rep. John Lewis of Georgia died late Friday at the age of 80.
He was a civil rights icon and served in the House of Representatives since 1987. A lifelong champion of desegregation, Lewis was one of the original Freedom Riders, a group of civil rights activists who rode interstate buses through the South to demonstrate against segregated bus terminals.
He was also the last surviving speaker of the 1963 March on Washington. Lewis rose to national prominence on March 7, 1965, when he led over 600 peaceful protesters across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.
Source: Business Insider
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