Civil Rights Icon John Lewis Dies at Age 80 Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again. × Search search POPULAR SEARCHES SUGGESTED LINKS Join AARP for just $9 per year when you sign up for a 5-year term. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Leaving AARP.org Website You are now leaving AARP.org and going to a website that is not operated by AARP. A different privacy policy and terms of service will apply.

Rep John Lewis Who Suffered Violence to Seek Peace Dies at 80

Civil rights activist was known as the conscience of Congress

John Lewis is seen near the statue of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the Capitol Rotunda. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images . The Atlanta resident, 80, was a veteran not only of 33 years in Congress but also of the March 7, 1965, , Alabama. At age 25, walking at the head of the march with his hands tucked in the pockets of his tan overcoat, he was knocked to the ground and beaten by white police officers. His skull was fractured, and nationally televised images of the brutality focused the country's attention on racial oppression in the South. Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. "Congressman John Lewis was a true example of leadership,” said Jo Ann Jenkins, AARP's chief executive officer. “He dedicated his life to equal justice for all Americans, bringing moral clarity to our national dialogue and inspiring individuals no matter what race, or party, or age or religion. Rep. Lewis was an icon for generations of Americans, from his march in Selma that led to the Voting Rights Act, to his work to end discrimination against LGBTQ Americans."

Youngest of the Big Six

Lewis was the youngest of the Big Six civil rights activists, a group led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that had the greatest effect on the civil rights movement. Lewis’ beating led President Lyndon Johnson to press Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act. The bill became law later in 1965, removing barriers that had barred blacks from voting. "He loved this country so much that he risked his life and his blood so that it might live up to its promise,” President Barack Obama said in a statement after Lewis’ death. “And through the decades, he not only gave all of himself to the cause of freedom and justice but inspired generations that followed to try to live up to his example." Lewis spent the final months of his life witnessing, if from the sidelines, seismic changes within American society. He viewed the recent protests for racial justice as a continuation of his life's work and expressed pride in demonstrators carrying on his legacy of what he long referred to as “good trouble."

Among the original Freedom Riders

Lewis was born Feb. 21, 1940, near Troy, Alabama, and attended segregated schools. He graduated from American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee, and also earned a bachelor's degree in religion and philosophy from Fisk University in Nashville. AARP Membership — $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine. Flowers & Gifts 25% off sitewide and 30% off select items See more Flowers & Gifts offers > Before Lewis’ election as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1963, he had been arrested two dozen times for his nonviolent protests as part of the civil rights movement. That included incarceration for 37 days in the Mississippi State Penitentiary — for entering a whites-only area of a bus station in that state. "Early on, he embraced the principles of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience as the means to bring about real change in this country, understanding that such tactics had the power not only to change laws, but to change hearts and minds as well,” Obama said. Lewis's family members created a six-day celebration of life from July 25 through 30, in Troy, Selma and Montgomery, Alabama; Washington, D.C.; and Atlanta, where Lewis was buried in a private service at South-View Cemetery. Not all events were open to the public, but the public was able to pay respects at each stop. Events included a procession across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on July 26 and a ceremony the next day at the U.S. Capitol, where Lewis lay in state through July 27. Like Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), President George H.W. Bush and civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks, Lewis was honored in the Capitol Rotunda where the nation's most revered figures have lain. In October 2019, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) became the first black lawmaker to lie in state in the Capitol but was honored in Statuary Hall.
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