海角大神

People paid great heed to John Lewis for much of his life in the civil rights movement. But at the very beginning 鈥� when he was just a kid wanting to be a minister someday 鈥� his audience didn鈥檛 care much for what he had to say.

A son of Alabama sharecroppers, the young Mr. Lewis first preached moral righteousness to his family鈥檚 chickens. His place in the vanguard of the 1960s campaign for Black equality had its roots in that hardscrabble Alabama farm and all those clucks.

Mr. Lewis, who died Friday at age 80, was the youngest and last survivor of the Big Six civil rights activists who organized the 1963 March on Washington, and spoke shortly before the group鈥檚 leader, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., gave his 鈥淚 Have a Dream鈥� speech to a vast sea of people.

If that speech marked a turning point in the civil rights era 鈥� or at least the most famous moment 鈥� the struggle was far from over. Two more hard years passed before truncheon-wielding state troopers beat Mr. Lewis bloody and fractured his skull as he led 600 protesters over Selma鈥檚 Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Searing TV images of that brutality helped to galvanize national opposition to racial oppression and embolden leaders in Washington to pass the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act five months later.

鈥淭he American public had already seen so much of this sort of thing, countless images of beatings and dogs and cursing and hoses,鈥� Mr. Lewis wrote in his memoirs. 鈥淏ut something about that day in Selma touched a nerve deeper than anything that had come before.鈥�

That bridge became a touchstone in Mr. Lewis鈥� life. He returned there often during his decades in Congress representing the Atlanta area, bringing lawmakers from both parties to see where 鈥淏loody Sunday鈥� went down.

More brutality would loom in his life's last chapter. He wept watching the video of George Floyd鈥檚 death at the hands of police in Minnesota. 鈥淚 kept saying to myself: How many more? How many young Black men will be murdered?鈥� he said last month.

Yet he declared, or at least dared to hope: 鈥淲e鈥檙e one people, we鈥檙e one family. We all live in the same house, not just the American house but the world house.鈥�

Mr. Lewis earned bipartisan respect in Washington, where some called him the 鈥渃onscience of Congress.鈥� His humble manner contrasted with the puffed chests on Capitol Hill. But as a liberal on the losing side of many issues, he lacked the influence he鈥檇 summoned at the segregated lunch counters of his youth, or later, within the Democratic Party, as a steadfast voice for the poor and disenfranchised.

He was a guiding voice for a young Illinois senator who became the first Black president.

鈥淚 told him that I stood on his shoulders,鈥� former President Barack Obama wrote in a statement marking Mr. Lewis's death. 鈥淲hen I was elected President of the United States, I hugged him on the inauguration stand before I was sworn in and told him I was only there because of the sacrifices he made.鈥�

Mr. Lewis was a 23-year-old firebrand, a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, when he joined King and four other civil rights leaders at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York to plan and announce the Washington demonstration. The others were Whitney Young of the National Urban League; A. Philip Randolph of the Negro American Labor Council; James L. Farmer Jr., of the interracial Congress of Racial Equality; and Roy Wilkins of the NAACP.

At the National Mall months later, he had a speaking slot before King and toned down his intended remarks, bowing to pressure that 鈥渋ncensed鈥� him.

鈥淚 wanted it to have an air of militancy,鈥� Mr. Lewis said.

He dropped a reference to leading a 鈥渟corched earth鈥� campaign across the South, like Civil War Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman鈥檚 March to the Sea. (鈥淛ohn, that doesn鈥檛 sound like you,鈥� he recalled King telling him.) He scaled back criticism of President John Kennedy鈥檚 civil rights record.

It was a potent speech nonetheless. He vowed: 鈥淏y the forces of our demands, our determination and our numbers, we shall splinter the segregated South into a thousand pieces and put them together in an image of God and democracy.鈥�

His words were soon and for all time overshadowed by the speech of King. 鈥淗e changed us forever,鈥� Mr. Lewis said of King鈥檚 oratory that day.

But the change the movement sought would take many more sacrifices.

After months of training in nonviolent protest, demonstrators led by Mr. Lewis and the Rev. Hosea Williams began a march of more than 50 miles from Selma to Alabama鈥檚 capital in Montgomery. They didn鈥檛 get far: On March 7, 1965, a phalanx of police blocked their exit from the Selma bridge. Authorities swung truncheons, fired tear gas and charged on horseback, sending many to the hospital. The nation was horrified.

鈥淭his was a face-off in the most vivid terms between a dignified, composed, completely nonviolent multitude of silent protesters and the truly malevolent force of a heavily armed, hateful battalion of troopers,鈥� Mr. Lewis wrote. 鈥淭he sight of them rolling over us like human tanks was something that had never been seen before. People just couldn鈥檛 believe this was happening, not in America.鈥�

King swiftly returned to the scene with a multitude, and the march to Montgomery was made whole before the end of the month.

Mr. Lewis was born on Feb. 21, 1940, outside Troy, in Alabama鈥檚 Pike County. He attended segregated public schools and was denied a library card because of his race, but he read books and newspapers avidly, and could rattle off obscure historical facts even in his later years.

He was a teenager when he first heard King, then a young minister from Atlanta, preach on the radio. They met after Mr. Lewis wrote him seeking support to become the first Black student at his local college. He ultimately attended the American Baptist Theological Seminary and Fisk University instead, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Soon, the young man King nicknamed 鈥渢he boy from Troy鈥� was organizing sit-ins at whites-only lunch counters and volunteering as a Freedom Rider, enduring beatings and arrests while challenging segregation around the South. Mr. Lewis helped form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to organize this effort, led the group from 1963 to 1966 and kept pursuing civil rights work and voter registration drives for years thereafter.

President Jimmy Carter appointed聽Mr. Lewis to lead ACTION, a federal volunteer agency, in 1977. In 1981, he was elected to the Atlanta City Council, and then won a seat in Congress in 1986.

Humble and unfailingly friendly,聽Mr. Lewis was revered on Capitol Hill. When Democrats controlled the House, he tried to keep them unified as his party鈥檚 senior deputy whip, a behind-the-scenes leadership post. The opening of the Smithsonian鈥檚 National Museum of African American History and Culture was a key victory. But as one of the most liberal members of Congress, spending much of his career in the minority, he often lost policy battles, from his effort to stop the Iraq War to his defense of young immigrants.

Mr. Lewis also met bipartisan success in Congress in 2006 when he led efforts to renew the Voting Rights Act, but the Supreme Court invalidated much of the law in 2013, and it became once again what it was in his youth, a work in progress.

Mr. Lewis initially endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, but belatedly backed Mr. Obama when it became clear he had more Black support. After Mr. Obama鈥檚 swearing-in, he signed a commemorative photograph for Mr. Lewis that reflected much more than his endorsement, writing 鈥淏ecause of you, John. Barack Obama.鈥� Later, they marched hand in hand in Selma on the 50th anniversary of the attack.

And when Mr. Obama was succeeded by a president who sought to dismantle much of his legacy, Mr. Lewis made no effort to hide his pain.

Mr. Lewis refused to attend President Donald Trump鈥檚 inauguration, saying he didn鈥檛 consider him a 鈥渓egitimate president鈥� because Russians had conspired to get him elected. When Mr. Trump later complained about immigrants from 鈥渟---hole countries,鈥� Mr. Lewis declared, 鈥淚 think he is a racist ... we have to try to stand up and speak up and not try to sweep it under the rug.鈥�

Mr. Trump 鈥� while not tweeting or issuing a statement himself about Mr. Lewis' death 鈥� ordered flags at half-staff at the White House and all federal public buildings and grounds, including embassies abroad and all military posts and naval stations, throughout the day Saturday.

Mr. Lewis said he鈥檇 been arrested 40 times in the 1960s, five more as a congressman. At 78, he told a rally he鈥檇 do it again to help reunite immigrant families separated by the Trump administration.

鈥淭here cannot be any peace in America until these young children are returned to their parents and set all of our people free,鈥� Mr. Lewis said. 鈥淚f we fail to do it, history will not be kind to us,鈥� he shouted. 鈥淚 will go to the border. I鈥檒l get arrested again. If necessary, I鈥檓 prepared to go to jail.鈥�

The rise of the Black Lives Matter movement and the racial diversity of the crowds protesting racism and police brutality gave him encouragement in his last weeks even as the unrest exposed anguished division that would not be overcome in his lifetime.

鈥淚t was very moving, very moving to see hundreds and thousands of people from all over America and around the world take to the streets to speak up, to speak out,鈥� he said on 鈥淐BS This Morning.鈥�

He urged protesters seeking justice in Floyd鈥檚 killing and the authorities confronting them to be nonviolent, because "there鈥檚 something cleansing, something wholesome, about being peaceful and orderly.鈥�

Associated Press writer Michael Warren contributed to this report.