1940 — 2020
He played many key roles in the civil rights movement and its actions to end legalised racial segregation in the United States.
Mr Lewis was widely seen as a moral conscience of congress because of his decades-long embodiment of nonviolent fight for civil rights.
“His passionate oratory was backed by a long record of action that included, by his count, more than 40 arrests while demonstrating against racial and social injustice,” it reported.
A follower and colleague of Martin Luther King Jr., he participated in lunch counter sit-ins, joined the Freedom Riders in challenging segregated buses and at the age of 23 was a keynote speaker at the historic 1963 March on Washington.
The late Mr Lewis dedicated his entire life to non-violent activism and was an outspoken advocate in the struggle for equal justice in America.
America’s former president
Barrack Obama said Mr Lewis loved his country so much that he risked his life and his blood so that it might live up to its promise.
“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,” he said.
Born in Troy, Alabama, he was the third of ten children.
His parents Willie Mae (née Carter) and Eddie Lewis were sharecroppers in Alabama.
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