ST. LOUIS — Just mention the name of civil rights icon Georgia Congressman John Lewis and scores of St. Louisans have many stories they're eager to share.
"I had remembered him long before he spoke at Harris-Stowe. The loss hurts. We know that he had been ill, but you just don't expect these things to happen," said Dr. Henry Givens, Jr., the former President of Harris-Stowe State University.
Givens beams with joy when he flashes back to 2007.
That's when Congressman Lewis was the keynote speaker at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. State Celebration Commission at Harris-Stowe.
Givens said Lewis inspired many students.
"And he just simply told them you young people are the leaders, civil rights leaders of tomorrow. We need you in this country," said Givens.
"He was always so gracious, so humble," said Russ Carnahan, former Representative for Missouri's Third Congressional District.
Carnahan says serving with Congressman John Lewis was indeed an honor.
The 80-year-old Lewis died on Friday after battling pancreatic cancer.
"It was really special to have John as a colleague. People from St. Louis used to come visit me in Washington and often say can we meet John Lewis? I've never seen someone so famous, also be so humble. Being humbled, loving and inclusive, that's how John Lewis changed things," added Carnahan.
Many are now honoring the courageous champion of the Civil Rights Movement.
The fearless Freedom Rider who challenged segregated busing in the 1960s.
Even organized lunch sit-ins as a teenager.
On March 7th, 1965, Lewis was beaten by a state trooper during a civil rights voting march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.
"Always a man of the people," said Michael McMillan, the President of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis.
McMillan cherishes meeting John Lewis as a teenager. He calls the towering trailblazer "his hero."
"The life of service, working by the right hand of Dr. King, being the last living speaker at the March On Washington, serving all those years in Congress, meeting kings, but John Lewis kept the common touch for every man. He will never, ever, ever be duplicated," said McMillan.
"He has made history," Carnahan said.
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