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Northeast Florida remembers Rep. John Lewis

Jacksonville, FL — The late Rep. John Lewis played a critical role in the civil rights movement and helped change history.

Lewis died Thursday of pancreatic cancer. Friends of the late congressman who live in St. Augustine said he fought for civil rights until the last days of his life.

Local historians David Nolan and Dr. Priscilla Duncan invited Lewis to a Freedom Trail luncheon in St. Augustine 10 years ago.

“We had the greats of even Rev C.T. Vivian who came to the Freedom Trail luncheon and he passed yesterday as well. So, I feel like I’m just standing on the shoulders of greatness,” said Duncan.

Nolan first met Lewis 50 years ago. He said, “Just a couple of weeks after he was beaten crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, and his head was still bandaged up, and you could see the blood on the bandages, and I recounted that when we met again in St. Augustine in 2010.”

Duncan and Nolan said Lewis was passionate.

“He was as down to earth as anyone can be,” said Nolan.

“I know for me as a Black, African American woman I just know I have to do my part,” said Duncan. “I want to dedicate the rest of my life to change and just carrying that torch forward.”

Nolan said, “When you were around John Lewis, you were in the presence of an American saint.”

Lewis was the youngest and last survivor of the Big Six civil rights activists who organized the 1963 march in Washington. He was 80 years old.