Brad Pitt to join Oprah Winfrey in paying tribute to civil rights hero John Lewis

Civil rights hero John Lewis is getting honoured by showbiz stars including Oprah Winfrey and Brad Pitt in a special TV tribute.

The Fight Club actor and the media executive will be joined by other A-listers in the industry including Jennifer Hudson, Tyler Perry, Billy Porter and Gayle King, for the primetime CBS special.

The special tribute will be titled, John Lewis: Celebrating a Hero and will be aired on August 4.

Winfrey, in a statement extended to Variety, had said: “John Lewis was an extraordinary man. A man of great vision who lived a life with the purpose of making sure America lived out its ideals.”

Perry also joined the conversation, saying: “This is a celebration of the ‘boy from Troy.’ A forefather of the civil rights movement, who would live to see his contributions for equality result in witnessing the swearing in of the first Black United States president.”

President and senior executive producer of CBS News, Susan Zirinsky also issued a statement, saying: “Congressman Lewis was one of the most prominent and forceful voices for change in this country. Losing that voice now is so difficult as the country confronts structural racism. But John Lewis gave us the will and the way to continue his work. This special reminds us the journey will not be easy, and there’s no turning back.”

The news comes days after the death of Lewis after he lost his fight with pancreatic cancer on July 17.

The last youngest and the last surviving member of the Big Six civil rights activist group—steered by Martin Luther King Jr.— had led around 600 protesters in the Bloody Sunday march back in 1965 all through Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama fighting racial segregation.