Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) remembered the late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) on Friday as “a titan” whose work in the Civil Rights movement changed the nation.
“Today, America mourns the loss of one of the greatest heroes of American history: Congressman John Lewis, the Conscience of the Congress,” Pelosi said in a statement. “John Lewis was a titan of the civil rights movement whose goodness, faith and bravery transformed our nation – from the determination with which he met discrimination at lunch counters and on Freedom Rides, to the courage he showed as a young man facing down violence and death on Edmund Pettus Bridge, to the moral leadership he brought to the Congress for more than 30 years.”
She praised his work in Congress and his fight against racism and discrimination against LGBTQ+ Americans. Pelosi also made note of Lewis recently joining protests for Black Lives Matter as people nationwide call for an end to racism and police brutality in the wake of the death of George Floyd in police custody in May.
“How fitting it is that even in the last weeks of his battle with cancer, John summoned the strength to visit the peaceful protests where the newest generation of Americans had poured into the streets to take up the unfinished work of racial justice,” Pelosi said. “His visit with Mayor [Muriel] Bowser, the Mayor of Washington, painted an iconic picture of justice.”
Pelosi also noted his famous call to make “good trouble,” and concluded that “God truly blessed America with the life and leadership of John Lewis.”
The civil rights icon passed away Friday at the age of 80 after a battle with pancreatic cancer, which he was diagnosed with last December.