Some good will follow all the unrest and sadness that took place in 2020. Part of that unrest were the many protests against racist violence, which included the long-overdue downing of several Confederate statues and monuments across the country. Last year was also characterized by sadness for the many lives lost, like that of Rep. John Lewis who died of pancreatic cancer at 80.
“John was a giant of a man, with a humble heart,” DeKalb Commissioner Mereda Davis Johnson said in a statement. “He met no strangers and he truly was a man who loved the people and who loved his country which he represented very well. He deserves this honor.”
There is no question that he does. As a young man on the frontlines of civil rights movement, Lewis was battered by police while marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama on a day in 1965 that would go on to be remembered as “Bloody Sunday.” He went on to dedicate the rest of his life to the expansion and preservation of civil rights.
