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John Lewis, a civil rights and congressional leader, died at the age of 80 on July 17. The Georgia Democrat spent three decades in Congress defending the gains he had helped achieve for people of color as a 1960s civil rights leader. In 2010, President Barack Obama awarded Lewis the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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Lewis, chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from 1963 to 1966 and one of the original Freedom Riders, preached nonviolence while enduring beatings and jailings.
At the age of 23, he spoke at the 1963 March on Washington: “We must say, ‘Wake up, America, wake up!’ For we cannot stop, and we will not be patient.” Lewis was the last living speaker from the march where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” address.
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Lewis, who had served in Congress since 1987, was considered the conscience of the House Democratic caucus. He used his standing as a civil rights icon to gain support on social and economic issues.
As a freshman congressman, Lewis began a fight for a national African American museum. In 2003 his bill gained approval, and in 2016 the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened its doors.
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Lewis, who announced his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer on Dec. 29, continued working while undergoing treatment. In an interview with Post columnist Jonathan Capehart, he said of the recent protests, “It was so moving and so gratifying to see people from all over America and all over the world saying through their action, ‘I can do something. I can say something.’” His final public appearance was with D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) at Black Lives Matter plaza.
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Obituary: John Lewis, civil rights leader and eminence of Capitol Hill dies at 80
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