John Robert Lewis has died after a six-month battle with cancer, according to a statement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Lewis is the son of sharecroppers.
He survived a brutal beating by police during a landmark 1965 march in Selma, Alabama.
He became a figure of the civil rights movement and a longtime US congressman.
Lewis was a follower and colleague of Martin Luther King Jr.
He participated in lunch counter sit-ins, joined the Freedom Riders in challenging segregated buses.
At the age of 23 -- was a keynote speaker at the historic 1963 March on Washington.
