Despite scattered rain showers, hundreds of people in Montgomery gathered Sunday to say goodbye to Rep. John Lewis and to publicly say thank you to his lifetime of service in the fight for civil rights. Lewis died July 17 after battling pancreatic cancer. He was 80 years old. A hearse carried his casket up Dexter Avenue where he laid…
People in Selma are saying their goodbyes to civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis. A memorial service was held tonight at Brown Chapel AME Church, one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement. While the public wasn’t allowed inside due to social distancing requirements, many watched live coverage on television. Selma Mayor Darrio Melton provided a welcome to…
Alabama News Network is covering the life and work of Rep. John Lewis. He died Friday, July 17 at the age of 80. His service is being remembered across Alabama. Here is a complete look at recent stories we have on him. We will be adding to this list in the coming days: EVENTS: List of local events to…
The family of Rep. John Lewis took time to speak publicly about his life at a service this morning at Troy University. Alabama News Network aired the service live. “He was a humble man, a simple man, a man of God,” his youngest sister Rosa Tyner said. She remembered her brother saying, “If you see something wrong, do something.”…
Born in rural Alabama during the dark days of Jim Crow segregation, Rep. John Lewis rose from poverty to become a leader of the civil rights movement and later was elected to Congress. Here is a timeline of some major events in Lewis’ life. Feb. 21, 1940: Born the son of Black sharecroppers near Troy. ___ Fall 1959: Long interested…
John Lewis, a lion of the civil rights movement whose bloody beating by Alabama state troopers in Selma in 1965 helped galvanize opposition to racial segregation, and who went on to a long and celebrated career in Congress, died on Friday, July 17. He was 80. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called him “one of the greatest heroes of American history.”…
Mourning the death of civil rights hero John Lewis, Democrats in Congress are urging the Senate to take up a bill of enduring importance to Lewis throughout his life: protecting and expanding the right to vote. “No right is more precious to our citizenship than the right of all Americans to be able to vote,” said Rep. Terri Sewell, (D-Alabama),…
Growing calls nationally to honor the memory of Rep. John Lewis by putting his name on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma where he and other voting rights demonstrators were beaten 55 years ago are being met with some resistance in the city. Some say renaming the bridge for the Georgia congressman would dishonor local activists who spent years advocating…
Eighteen-year-old John Lewis stepped off a Greyhound bus in Montgomery in 1958 after receiving a round-trip ticket from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The teen had written King a letter because he was interested in trying to attend the all-white Troy University, just 10 miles from his family’s farm in Pike County. “So you’re John Lewis. The boy from…
Civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., is extolled at an event with fellow Democrats before passing the Voting Rights Advancement Act to eliminate potential state and local voter suppression laws, at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, Dec. 6, 2019. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Calls are growing nationally to honor the late Rep. John Lewis by putting his name on…
