دينا واصف ويكيبيديا

The US House of Representatives announced, on Saturday, the death of John Lewis, an activist who advocates nonviolence and a civil rights defender in the United States and a companion of Martin Luther King's coach, at the age of eighty, according to the UAE "Al Ain".

Council President Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that "America mourns today one of the greatest heroes of American history," John Lewis, who has been suffering from cancer in the pancreas and vice for decades.

Lewis participated in the protest marches in Alabama in 1965 to demand the right to vote for blacks, and those marches formed a milestone in the civil rights defense movement in the United States.

During one of these marches, protesters came under attack from the local police and Lewis suffered a skull fracture, and Lewis was awarded many honorary degrees, and he holds a number of awards from well-known national and international institutions, including the highest civilian honor in the United States, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom .

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, congressman, and leader of civil rights campaigners, named John Lewis, who died at the age of 81.

"America is crying today for the loss of one of the greatest heroes in American history: Congressman John Lewis, the conscience of Congress," said a press release, posted on the US House of Representatives website.

.@RepJohnLewis was a titan of the civil rights movement whose goodness, faith and bravery transformed our nation. Every day of his life was dedicated to bringing freedom and justice to all. pic.twitter.com/xMbfAUhLUv

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 18, 2020

Pelosi noted that Louis was suffering of cancer.

For its part, the newspaper "Hill" wrote that John Lewis was a prominent leader in the field of civil rights, and remained a symbol of the movement in Congress for more than three decades.