Tens of thousands in US join ‘Good Trouble' anti-Trump protests honoring John Lewis
The 'Good Trouble Lives On' day of action coincides with the fifth anniversary of Lewis's death. Lewis was a longtime congressman from Georgia who participated in iconic civil rights actions, including the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 when police attacked Lewis and other protesters on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Lewis implored people to participate in 'good trouble, necessary trouble' to advance their causes, and this call serves as the underpinning for the 17 July actions. Dozens of advocacy and civil rights organizations signed on as partners for the event.
In Atlanta, Georgia, one of the main sites for the protest, Lewis' legacy rang loud as anti-Trump demonstrators marched down the courtyard of Dr Martin Luther King Jr's famed church, Ebenezer Baptist.
'We honor John Lewis's personal legacy, five years after being called home,' said the Rev Dr Jonathan Jay Augustine, the newly appointed senior pastor of Big Bethel AME church. 'He's someone who gave his life for inclusion and for inclusiveness, and the things he gave his life for are under attack and being eroded away.'
About 1,000 people marched from Big Bethel and the landmark five-story tall mural of Lewis to Ebenezer Baptist, where the Rev Raphael Warnock, a Democratic senator from Georgia, is its senior pastor. Politics and faith are intertwined on Atlanta's streets and Lewis' legacy of political protest – and the unique animosity Donald Trump had for him, and for Atlanta's fifth district, which Lewis represented – is rarely far from the thoughts expressed by civil rights and voting rights leaders here.
'Today we go to send a message from the birthplace of civil rights to … the one that wants to destroy the Department of Education, the one that wants to deport millions upon millions of people seeking a better life, the one who won't release the Epstein files, the one who had the nerve to call the fifth district horrible and falling apart,' said Georgia NAACP president Gerald Griggs. 'We still have a message for that man. In Georgia, no one is above the law. You still have a court date in the fifth district.'
In downtown Washington, hundreds of people gathered in a park a few blocks from the White House. Some held signs protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and comparing the Trump administration to Nazi Germany.
'Fascism will fall and when it falls, if you were complicit, you will be held accountable,' said Mary Baird, who traveled to Washington Thursday morning from North Carolina to meet with members of Congress before the protest.
In downtown Minneapolis, the theme of 'good trouble' punctuated the speeches, with speakers imploring the crowd to follow Lewis' example and take a stand, even if it gets them in trouble. 'Stand up and get in the way,' said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a lawyer and social justice advocate who also called on the crowd to continue the boycott against Target, the retailer based in Minnesota.
The events across the country Thursday were inspired by civil rights leaders like Lewis, who showed the power of collective action, the protest's website says.
'That's why on July 17, five years since the passing of congressman John Lewis, communities across the country will take to the streets, courthouses, and community spaces to carry forward his fight for justice, voting rights, and dignity for all.'
Organizers said before Thursday's events that they expect tens of thousands of people to turn out in small towns, suburbs and cities, the latest exercise of street protests distributed across the country to show opposition to Trump in all corners of the US. The last mass day of protest, No Kings, in June drew several million people in one of the biggest single days of protest in US history. Thursday's events will probably be smaller as it is a weekday.
Chicago will host the day's flagship event Thursday evening, with additional main sites in Atlanta, St Louis, Annapolis and Oakland. Events include rallies, marches, candlelight vigils, food drives, direct action trainings, teach-ins and voter registration drives.
The protest's demands include an end to the Trump administration's crackdown on civil rights, including the right to protest and voting rights; targeting of Black and brown Americans, immigrants and trans people; and the slashing of social programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), known colloquially as 'food stamps'.
'One of the things that John Lewis would always say is that if you see something that's wrong, you have an obligation to speak up, to say something, to do something,' Daryl Jones, co-leader of the Transformative Justice Coalition, told reporters on Thursday. 'That's what July 17 is about – seeing things across this nation, seeing things that are being impacted, that are just not right. We've got to stand up and say something.'
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