US civil rights pioneer John Lewis dies at 80

John Lewis, a pioneer of the civil rights movement and long-time member of the US House of Representatives, died on Friday. Lewis, a member of Congress from Atlanta who had announced in December that he had advanced pancreatic cancer, was 80. Lewis was a protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whom he met after writing to him when Lewis was just 18. He was the last surviving speaker from the 1963 March on Washington, having stood beside King when he made his "I Have a Dream" speech. Lewis kept up the fight for civil rights and human rights until the end of his life, inspiring with others with calls to make "Good Trouble." Tributes quickly began pouring in from other politicians, Lewis' fellow Democrats and Republicans. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Lewis "a titan of the civil rights movement". "The Republican Majority Leader of the US Senate, Mitch McConnell, said Lewis has a place "among the giants of American history".

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