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During a stop in Rock Hill, South Carolina, Lewis was attacked by two men who hit him in the face and kicked him in the ribs, according to Smithsonian Magazine. In an interview decades later, he said he was undeterred.

\"We knew our lives could be threatened, but we had made up our minds not to turn back,\" he said.

He was the youngest person to speak at the 1963 March on Washington, an event he helped organize as the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The rally, at which King famously delivered his \"I Have a Dream\" speech, drew more than 200,000 attendees.

And in the winter of 1965, in what would become known as \"Bloody Sunday,\" Lewis, alongside fellow civil rights leader Hosea Williams, was in the process of leading hundreds of demonstrators in a march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery when they were greeted by a \"sea of blue\" of Alabama state troopers, Lewis said. The troopers beat and tear-gassed the demonstrators after ordering them to disperse.

One of those troopers fractured Lewis's skull, scarring his head for the rest of his life.

\"PHOTO:
AP Photo, File
PHOTO: In this March 7, 1965, file photo, state troopers swinging billy clubs to break up a civil rights voting march in Selma, Ala. John Lewis, in the foreground, is being beaten by a state trooper. Lewis sustained a fractured skull.
>

\"I thought I saw death,\" Lewis later said.

Since then, Lewis has retraced the steps from those day's events nearly every year in what has become known as the Alabama Civil Rights Pilgrimage.

Lewis was elected to the Atlanta City Council in 1981 and then to Congress, representing Georgia's 5th District in 1986. He has served on the Ways & Means Committee and is head of the Oversight Subcommittee.

\"The world has lost a legend; the civil rights movement has lost an icon, the City of Atlanta has lost one of its most fearless leaders, and the Congressional Black Caucus has lost our longest serving member,\" the caucus said in a statement. \"The Congressional Black Caucus is known as the Conscience of the Congress. John Lewis was known as the conscience of our caucus. A fighter for justice until the end, Mr. Lewis recently visited Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington DC. His mere presence encouraged a new generation of activist to 'speak up and speak out' and get into 'good trouble' to continue bending the arc toward justice and freedom.\"

A published author, Lewis co-authored a graphic novel trilogy \"MARCH\" about the civil rights movement, a project that garnered the National Book Award among others.

\"PHOTO:
Melina Mara/The Washington Post via AP, Pool, File
PHOTO: In this Oct. 24, 2019 file photo, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., prepares to pay his respects to Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who lies in state during a memorial service at the U.S. Capitol Hill in Washington.
>

Lewis was never shy in his criticism of President Donald Trump, skipping his inauguration and first State of the Union address and calling him a \"racist\" in a January 2018 interview on \"This Week with George Stephanopoulos.\"

\"George, I don't think there's any way that you can square what the president said with the words of Martin Luther King Jr.,\" the Georgia congressman said, in reaction to Trump's alleged reference to not wanting immigrants from \"s--hole\" countries. \"It's just impossible ... It's unbelievable. It makes me sad. It makes me cry.”

President Barack Obama awarded Lewis the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011 for his lifetime of advocacy and activism.

During that February ceremony, Obama said of Lewis: \"And generations from now, when parents teach their children what is meant by courage, the story of John Lewis will come to mind -- an American who knew that change could not wait for some other person or some other time; whose life is a lesson in the fierce urgency of now.\"

\"PHOTO:
Ben Arnon/Magnolia Pictures via AP
PHOTO: This image released by Magnolia Pictures shows Rep. John Lewis in a scene from "John Lewis: Good Trouble."
>

Last month, at a town hall with Obama discussing the racial protests across the country following the death of George Floyd, he reflected on his emotions while protesting during the civil rights movement.

\"I have been beaten on the bridge, I thought I was so dead. I thought I was going to die,” Lewis said.

\"I believe it was the grace of God, and praying witnesses that helped save me, so today I feel more than lucky, more than blessed to see the changes that are occurring to live to see a young man, a young friend like Barack Obama, become president of the United States of America was worth the pain,\" he added.

Lewis also offered praise for young people who had come together from all walks of life to join in protests.

\"They're going to help redeem the soul of America, and save our country, and maybe even save the planet,\" he said.

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