Civil rights activist and politician John Lewis - a life in pictures ‘The civil rights leader John Lewis, known at the ‘conscience of America’, has died. Born the son of sharecroppersin Alabama on 21 February 1940, he attended segregated public schools and, inspired by the words of Martin Luther King Jr, became active in the civil rights movement. From university onwards he organised sit-ins at segregated lunch counters, took part in the Freedom Rides, was chair of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and was akey speaker at the historic March on Washington in 1963. He led one of the pivotal moments in the civil rights movement, amarch over ‘the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama that was brutally attacked by state troopers. Sarah Gilbert sat 18 Ju 2020 06.57 EDT Anarrest photo from 1961, when Lewis served 37 days in Parchman Penitentiary in Mississippi for ‘disorderly conduct’ - using a restroom labelled white. Photograph: @repjohnlewis/twitter‘Young Freedom Riders Lewis (and James Zwerg stand together after being attacked and beaten by pro-segregationists in ‘Montgomery, Alabama on 20 May 1961. Photograph: Bettman/CorbisLewis being arrested in Jackson, Mississippi on 24 May 1961. He and 26 other Freedom Riders were arrested that day. Photograph: Bettmann/CorbisA portrait of Lewis taken in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1963. Photograph: Steve Schapiro/CorbisLewis as Chair of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, addressing marchers at the Lincoln Memorial in the March ‘on Washington in August 1963. This was where Martin Luther King delivered his “I have a dream” speech. Photograph: Bettman/CorbisHosea Williams and Lewis in the lead, marchers move through Selma in a civil rights march to Montgomery, Alabama before reaching the Edmund Pettus Bridge and a bloody clash with state troops on 7 March 1965, Photograph: Charles Moore/Black Star / eyevineLewis (in foreground) is beaten by a state trooper as they break up the march in Selma. Lewis suffered a fractured skull. Photograph: APa 4 ata ye * hens Py or eae ‘Martin Luther King led a march later that same month from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama, Beside King is Lewis, Reverend Jesse Douglas, James Forman and Ralph Abernathy.Lewis and Julian Bond during a voter mobilization tour of Mississippi in 1971. During the time that Lewis worked with the Voter Education Program, four million minorities registered to vote. Photograph: Robert W Woodruff LibraryLewis as a newly elected Congressman in 1987, seen here on Capitol Hill with Senator Wyche Fowler.Photograph: Lana Hartis/APLewis photographed in his offices in the Canon House office building on 17 March 2009 in Washington DC. Photograph: Jeff Hutchens/Getty ImagesLewis is arrested in April 2009, during a protest against the humanitarian crisis in Darfur outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington. Photograph: Bill Clark/ Getty ImagesLewis is awarded the Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in February 2011. Photograph: Brooks Kraft/Corbis —Lewis, center left, acknowledges a warm reception from the audience as CEO of Teach For America as he is awarded an honorary degree from Harvard in 2012. The degree was conferred for his work in the Civil Rights Movement. Photograph: Steven Senne/APLewis is again arrested, in 2013 at an immigration reform rally and march in Washington. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/epa/CorbisJohn Lewis and Amelia Boynton Robinson (in wheelchair), hold hands with Barack Obama and Michelle Obama on the soth anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama, 2015. Both Lewis and Boynton Robinson were badly beaten that day. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP1n2016, Lewis takes part in a sit-in on the floor of the House of Representatives, demanding that the Republican-led body vote on ‘gun-control legislation in the wake of a shooting in Orlando. Photograph: Handout/AFP/Getty ImagesLewis poses under a quote of his displayed in the Civil Rights Room in the Nashville Public Library in 2016, where he was awarded the Nashville Public Library Literary Award. Photograph: Mark Humphrey/APContinuing a lifetime of activism, Lewis joins a March For Our Lives protest, a student-led demonstration in support of legislation to prevent gun violence, in Atlanta, Georgia, 2018, Photograph: Prince Williams/WirelmageTopics + Civil rights movement + The Observer + US politics + Martin Luther King + Protest + Race + Activism