Many take part in Atlanta ‘Good Trouble Lives On’ rally in honor of late John Lewis

by Doug Reardon, Atlanta First News staff

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Thursday marks five years since John Lewis, a prominent civil rights activist and longtime Georgia congressman, died — and more than 1,500 rallies are planned to spread his message of “good trouble” across the country.

The “Good Trouble Lives On” rallies protest the Trump administration’s “attacks on our civil and human rights,” the movement said on its website. More than 20 have been organized across Georgia.

“We are facing the most brazen rollback of civil rights in generations,” the movement’s organizers said on their website. “Whether you’re outraged by attacks on voting rights, the gutting of essential services, disappearances of our neighbors, or the assault on free speech and our right to protest — this movement is for you.”

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In downtown Atlanta, participants marched from the John Lewis mural on Auburn Avenue to The King Center. The march ended at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Other rallies are also planned for Decatur, Marietta, Alpharetta, Kennesaw, Snellville and more.

Atlanta's mural to the late-Congressman John Lewis. The mural of the Civil Rights icon sits along Auburn Avenue, an area synonymous with the movement.

“I think he’s one of the fathers of modern protest,” said Gerald Griggs, Georgia’s NAACP President. “The next generation needs to understand that though a giant has fallen, we have to keep that dream alive, keep his hope alive, and keep good trouble alive.”

Lewis represented Georgia’s 5th congressional district, which encompasses the heart of Atlanta, for more than 30 years. He urged the public to get in “good trouble,” which he described as non-violent action taken to tackle injustices and spur social change.

“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America,” Lewis once said in what is now one of his most famous quotes.

Lewis was born in rural Alabama on Feb. 21, 1940, and died from pancreatic cancer on July 17, 2020.

Thursday’s protests also came with an undertone of protest. Lewis, a staunch critic of President Donald Trump, boycotted Trump’s inauguration in 2017.

“It’s important in the political discussion that we’re having, where we’re trying to erase diversity, equity and inclusion, trying to erase African American history, that we look to an icon like this,” said Griggs. “He learned how to use civil disobedience to call on the conscience of America to see the injustice.”