Civil rights icon and Georgia Congressman John Lewis passed away at the age of 80 on July 17. Lewis, who was born outside of Troy, Alabama, on Feb. 21, 1940, was one of the 13 original Freedom Riders in 1961 and served as a keynote speaker at the 1963 March on Washington when he was only 23 years old. On March 7, 1965, Lewis was beaten by state troopers as he led 600 protestors advocating for equal voting rights over the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on what is now known as “Bloody Sunday.” In 1986, Lewis was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat representing Georgia’s 5th Congressional district. He was reelected to the position 16 times and served until his death. In the pictures below, Americans mourn Lewis’s death and celebrate his tireless efforts to protect civil rights and his lifelong service to the state.
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