The American Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis is dead. Lewis died at the age of 80 years, as the house of representatives in Washington announced on Friday. In the sixties, Lewis was one of the best-known comrades-in-arms of Martin Luther King Jr., the fought for the equality of the black population in the United States. Representatives of Democrats and Republicans paid tribute to Lewis as a courageous fighter for civil rights and against racism.
In Lewis had died “one of the greatest heroes in American history,” said the speaker of the house of representatives, Nancy Pelosi. The politicians of the Democratic party was a “Titan of the civil rights movement, whose kindness, trust and courage changed our Nation”. The late civil rights leader had been the “Conscience of the Congress”.
Barack Obama, the only black President in the 244-year-long history of the country, recalled how Lewis had influenced his own life. Already at the first encounter as a Student, he had called him “his hero”. “When I was elected President of the United States, I embraced him before the swearing-in and told him that I was only there because of the sacrifice that he has provided,” wrote Obama, who was born 21 years after Lewis, in a brief obituary.
