John Lewis, U.S. congressman and civil rights icon, released from hospital - Action News
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John Lewis, U.S. congressman and civil rights icon, released from hospital

Civil rights icon and U.S. Rep. John Lewis has been released from hospital after treatment for undisclosed reasons in Atlanta.

78-year-old Democrat was admitted for undisclosed reasons on Saturday

John Lewis played a key role in the civil rights movement and marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965 in Selma, Ala. He was the youngest and last survivor of the Big Six civil rights activists, led by King Jr., who engineered one of the greatest moral protests in history. (David Goldman/Associated Press)

Civil rights icon and U.S. Rep. John Lewis has been released from hospital after treatmentfor undisclosed reasons in Atlanta.

Lewis's spokesperson Brenda Jones said in an emailed statement that Lewis left the hospital Sunday evening, a day after he was admitted. She said medical tests have all been completed and that doctors gavehima "clean bill of health."

Jones told The Associated Press earlier that the 78-year-old Georgia congressman was admitted Saturday night for "routine observation" andwas "resting very comfortably." She did not discloseLewis's condition but said the congressman thanks everyone for their prayers and concerns during his hospital stay.

Lewis had been expected at an Atlanta event Saturday evening, but did not attend.

Lewis, a Democrat, played a key role in the civil rights movement and marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1965 in Selma, Ala. He is the youngest and last survivor of the Big Six civil rights activists, led by King Jr., who engineered one of the greatest moral protests in history.

Lewis was best known for leading some 600 protesters in the 1965 Bloody Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in support of voting rights. At the head of the march, Lewis was knocked to the ground and beaten by Alabama state troopers. His skull was fractured. Televised images of the march forced the country's attention towardracial oppression in the South. A Democrat from Atlanta, he won his U.S. House seat in 1986.