GIANTS IN THOSE DAYS:

Born February 21, 1940, outside Troy, Alabama, John Lewis was the son of sharecroppers who grew up in the racially segregated South. He was not able to vote, enroll in college or obtain a public library card because he was Black.

Determined to be a part of the struggle for equal rights, Lewis graduated from Fisk University in Nashville in 1963 with a degree in religion and philosophy.

As a student, he organized sit-in demonstrations at segregated "Whites Only" lunch counters and staged bus boycotts. Lewis was one of the 13 original "Freedom Riders" beaten and arrested for riding alongside white passengers on interstate buses in the South.

Two years later, as chairman of the influential Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, he helped register thousands of Black voters in places like Alabama and Mississippi. "I've always fought for what was right," said Lewis.

As a 25-year-old activist, Lewis was badly beaten by white Alabama state troopers as he and 600 peaceful demonstrators marched for voting rights across the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965. Lewis suffered a fractured skull. Television images of the incident known as "Bloody Sunday" caused a national awakening to end racial discrimination.

"I was beaten bloody and tear-gassed, fighting for what's right for America. Our country would never ever be the same, because of what happened on this bridge," said Lewis of the history-making event.

Later that year, Lewis stood next to President Lyndon Johnson when he signed the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act. The legislation outlawed discriminatory voting practices that kept Blacks from gaining political power.

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