American civil rights icon John Lewis has died, House speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed on Friday 17 July.

Lewis, who had been suffering from pancreatic cancer, campaigned for civil rights to the very end of his life. A founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Lewis became its chair in 1963 and helped organise the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Martin Luther King Jr delivered his “I have a dream” speech. He was the youngest and last survivor of the “Big Six” civil rights activists, a group led by King.

Former president of the United States Barack Obama has paid tribute to Lewis, calling him a “hero” and recalling seeing him for the last time in the recent wake of George Floyd’s death.

Barack Obama shares moving tribute to civil rights leader John Lewis