John Lewis, a respected pioneer of the civil rights movement and eminent member of the United States House of Representatives, died on Friday.

Lewis, a member of Congress from Atlanta who had announced in December that he had advanced pancreatic cancer, was 80.

Lewis was a prominent leader of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. A founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, he became its chair in 1963, and helped organise the March on Washington, when Martin Luther King Jr delivered his “I have a Dream” speech.

Lewis was elected as the congressman for Georgia’s 5th District in 1987 and held the office until his death.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi confirmed Lewis had died from pancreatic cancer in a statement on Friday night.

Pelosi said: “Every day of John Lewis’s life was dedicated to bringing freedom and justice to all. As he declared 57 years ago during the March on Washington, standing in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial: ‘Our minds, souls, and hearts cannot rest until freedom and justice exist for all the people.’

“How fitting it is that even in the last weeks of his battle with cancer, John summoned the strength to visit the peaceful protests where the newest generation of Americans had poured into the streets to take up the unfinished work of racial justice.”

Civil rights group, the NAACP, tweeted that they were “deeply saddened”.

“His life-long mission for justice, equality and freedom left a permanent impression on our nation and world,” the organisation said.

“The NAACP extends our sincerest condolences to his family, and we send prayers of comfort and strength to all.”

“He loved this country so much that he risked his life and his blood so that it might live up to its promise,” former President Barack Obama said in a statement.

“And through the decades, he not only gave all of himself to the cause of freedom and justice, but inspired generations that followed to try to live up to his example.”