US Rep. John Lewis poses for a photo at his offices in Washington, DC, in March 2009. The civil rights icon was first elected to Congress in 1987.

Jeff Hutchens/Getty Images

Updated 12:21 AM ET, Sat July 18, 2020

US Rep. John Lewis poses for a photo at his offices in Washington, DC, in March 2009. The civil rights icon was first elected to Congress in 1987.

Jeff Hutchens/Getty Images

US Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon and longtime congressman, has died at the age of 80, according to a statement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"Today, America mourns the loss of one of the greatest heroes of American history: Congressman John Lewis, the Conscience of the Congress," Pelosi said.

Lewis was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer last year. He represented Georgia's 5th Congressional District, which includes much of Atlanta, for more than 30 years.

In the 1960s, Lewis was chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. It was one of the groups that organized the 1963 March on Washington, and Lewis was the youngest keynote speaker at the historic event.

In 1965, Lewis helped organize the Selma to Montgomery marches, which were held to protest discriminatory practices that prevented many black people from voting in the South. He suffered a fractured skull when Alabama state troopers used brutal force to break up the march.

By his own count, Lewis was arrested more than 40 times during his days of civil rights activism.

"Time and again, he faced down death so that all of us could share equally in the joys of life," said President Barack Obama in 2011, when he awarded Lewis the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The post John Lewis' life in pictures appeared first on L.A. Focus Newspaper.