Via Fox News:
Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), a former leading civil rights activist and symbol of the movement in the House of Representatives during his 33-year tenure, died Friday night.
Doctors diagnosed Lewis with pancreatic cancer late last year. He was 80.
Lewis, the son of Alabama sharecroppers, was already a national figure when he first entered Congress in 1987.
The former chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and one of the keynote speakers at the historic March on Washington, Lewis established himself throughout his time on Capitol Hill as a leading advocate for the rights of minorities.
His decades of tireless activism came to a climax when then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) soared to victory in the 2008 presidential election. Lewis was the only person who spoke from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the summer of 1963 to witness the election of the nation’s first African-American president.