Who was John Lewis? The civil rights icon inspires 'Good Trouble' protests
The protests, "Good Trouble Lives On," are expected to take place in dozens of cities and towns on July 17, five years to the day since Lewis' death in 2020. The late congressman, who led some of the most seminal demonstrations during the Civil Rights movement, popularized the phrase "good trouble," referring to the kind of nonviolent action and civil disobedience he became known for early in his career.
The late 17-term congressman was often called the 'moral compass'' of the U.S. House of Representatives, but he made a name for himself long before he became a lawmaker, as one of the youngest leaders in the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
Lewis' biography as a civil rights activist and lawmaker is a long one, involving some of the most significant U.S. political events and figures of the mid-20th century. Here's a brief overview of his past, as planned protests invoke his legacy on July 17.
'Good Trouble' protest locations: See where demonstrations are planned
Where was John Lewis born?
Lewis is the son of Alabama sharecroppers, born in Troy, Pike County, Alabama on February 21, 1940.
Lewis began preaching in local churches when he was 15 years old, according to a biography from Stanford's Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. He then enrolled in the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville after high school.
Lewis first met Martin Luther King Jr. in 1958, when he traveled to Montgomery, Alabama, to seek King's help in suing to transfer to Troy State University, an all-white institution closer to his home, according to the institute. Though he ended up not pursuing the litigation, the experience connected Lewis with King and other Black Civil Rights leaders and gave him his nickname, 'the boy from Troy."
Inspired to 'get in good trouble again:' Black lawmakers salute the legacy of John Lewis
What did John Lewis do during the Civil Rights movement?
As a leader in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Lewis challenged Jim Crow segregation across the South, participating in and leading many nonviolent protests.
"Lewis became heavily involved in the Nashville movement and participated in a series of student sit-ins in early 1960 that aimed to integrate movie theaters, restaurants, and other businesses," the MLK Research and Education Institute said, "In April 1960, he helped form SNCC (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and later participated in the Freedom Rides of 1961."
During this time, he rose to prominence within the movement, as chronicled by the National Archives and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library Archives. He was among a group who met with Kennedy in 1963 ahead of the historic March on Washington, and addressed the many thousands who descended upon the National Mall that day before King took the stage to deliver his 'I Have a Dream Speech.'
John Lewis' involvement in 'Bloody Sunday' in Selma, Alabama
Among all demonstrations and actions, he is perhaps most known for his involvement in what would be called "Bloody Sunday."
Lewis helped lead hundreds of peaceful protestors across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965 in support of equal voting rights for Black Americans. The protesters, including a then-25-year-old Lewis, where beaten back brutally by state troopers. Lewis suffered a fractured skull, and many others were injured by deployed gas, clubs, whips, and other weapons wielded by police.
The brutal attack galvanized public support for the movement and is seen as a pivotal precursor to the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Until his health failed, Lewis had led an annual bipartisan congressional pilgrimage to Selma to mark that anniversary. He stopped by the pilgrimage months before his death.
What was John Lewis' political legacy as a Democratic congressman from Georgia?
In 1987, Lewis was elected to represent Georgia's 5th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, often taking the lead on debates and legislation connected to civil rights and social justice, becoming known as the "conscience of the Congress," according to the National Archives.
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said she learned a lot from Lewis during their 30 years serving together in Congress. Pelosi said ''he taught us through words and action what true moral leadership looked like,' while members of the Congressional Black Caucus told USA TODAY that Lewis inspired them to continue the push for civil rights.
Lewis was an ally to Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and was an outspoken critic of the invasion and subsequent years-long war in Iraq. He also became a leading voice against gun violence and advocated for gun control legislation prominently following the shooting of former Rep. Gabby Giffords.
"We have been too quiet for too long,'' Lewis said during a 2016 sit-in in the House chambers over gun control legislation. 'There comes a time when you have to say something, when you have to make a little noise, when you have to move your feet. This is the time.'
Contributing: Deborah Barfield Berry and Susan Page, USA TODAY.
Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr.
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Miami Herald
12 hours ago
- Miami Herald
A clash over a promotion puts Hegseth at odds with his generals
WASHINGTON - In the spring, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth decided not to promote a senior Army officer who had led troops over five tours in Afghanistan and Iraq because Hegseth suspected, without evidence, that the officer had leaked sensitive information to the news media, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. When Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims II was cleared of the allegations, Hegseth briefly agreed to promote him, only to change course again early this month, the officials said. This time, Hegseth maintained that the senior officer was too close to Gen. Mark Milley, a former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff whom President Donald Trump has accused of disloyalty. Hegseth's sudden reversal prompted a rare intervention from Gen. Dan Caine, the current chair of the Joint Chiefs. He urged Hegseth to reconsider, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Hegseth met with Sims one final time but refused to budge. Sims is expected to retire in the coming months after 34 years in the military, officials said. Through a spokesperson, Sims and Caine declined to comment. A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment on Hegseth's role. The standoff over his promotion reflects an ongoing clash between Hegseth's highly partisan worldview, in which he has written that the Democratic Party 'really does hate America,' and the long-standing tradition of an apolitical military that pledges an oath to the Constitution. Hegseth's actions could shape the military's top ranks for years to come. His insistence on absolute loyalty, backed with repeated threats of polygraphs, also creates uncertainty and mistrust that threaten to undermine the readiness and effectiveness of the force, officials said. The tension between top military officers and their civilian leaders has been persistent since the earliest days of Trump's second term, when senior administration officials ordered the removal of Milley's portrait from a Pentagon hallway. Caine, who pressed Hegseth on Sims' behalf, got the job of Joint Chiefs chair after Hegseth and Trump fired Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., his predecessor. Hegseth accused Brown, who is Black, of prioritizing diversity over the combat effectiveness of the force. Also removed during the first months of the new administration were the first woman to command the Navy, Adm. Lisa Franchetti; the first woman to command the Coast Guard, Adm. Linda Fagan; Hegseth's senior military assistant, Lt. Gen. Jennifer Short; and the U.S. military representative to the NATO military committee, Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield. All were dismissed as part of a campaign to root out diversity, equity and inclusion from the military and restore what Hegseth has described as a 'warrior ethos.' Hegseth also recently withdrew the nomination of Rear Adm. Michael 'Buzz' Donnelly to lead the Navy's 7th Fleet in Japan -- its largest overseas force -- amid reports in conservative media that seven years earlier the admiral had allowed a drag performance to take place on the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan. The decision not to promote Sims, who is white, seems unrelated to any issues of race or gender. Rather, the general's career seems to have become tangled up in broader suspicions about leaks and a mistrust of senior military officers that have defined much of Hegseth's first six months on the job. Hegseth, a former Fox News host and an Iraq War veteran, came to the Pentagon with little managerial experience. Since his arrival, a series of firings and resignations in his inner circle have left him with only a skeleton staff of civilian aides to run his office. He has been without a permanent chief of staff since late April. Ricky Buria, a recently retired Marine colonel who has forged a close relationship with Hegseth, has been serving in the critical role. But White House officials, who have concerns about Buria's competence and qualifications, have blocked Hegseth from formally appointing him to the job, officials said. Buria, meanwhile, has clashed repeatedly with many of Hegseth's closest aides and some officers in the Pentagon. This spring, Eric Geressy, a retired sergeant major who served with Hegseth in Iraq and now advises him in the Pentagon, threatened to quit after an argument with Buria, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Around the same time, the White House directed Hegseth to cease using polygraph tests on his team, after one of his senior aides complained, a former Pentagon official said. The rift and the decision to stop the polygraph testing were reported earlier by The Washington Post. Geressy briefly went to his home in Florida before Hegseth persuaded him to return, officials said. Hegseth is also still contending with a review by the Pentagon's inspector general related to his disclosure on the Signal messaging app of the precise timing of U.S. fighter jets' airstrikes against the Iranian-backed Houthi militia in Yemen in March. The office has received evidence that the information that Hegseth put in the commercial chat app came from a classified Central Command document, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the review. The classified origins of the information were reported earlier by the Post. The infighting, investigations and personnel churn have strained Hegseth's ability to manage critical operations in the Pentagon. Hegseth found himself in the crosshairs this month after Democrats and Republicans in Congress blamed him for pausing critical shipments of interceptors and other arms to Ukraine without sufficiently consulting with the White House or the State Department. The suspension was particularly jarring because just days earlier Trump had said he was open to selling more weapons to Ukraine after meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in The Hague. It also left the impression that Hegseth and his top aides had failed to keep the president and senior White House officials in the loop. As aides to Hegseth traded blame, and then tried to play down the impact of the pause, Trump dramatically overruled the Pentagon, saying he was unhappy with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. In a further twist, Trump endorsed a plan for NATO countries to send Patriot antimissile systems to Ukraine and replace them by purchasing new arms from the United States. It was an approach conceived by NATO countries. Hegseth has delegated responsibility for working out details of the arms transfers to senior U.S. military officers in Europe. The frustration with Hegseth is seeping out. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who cast the deciding vote to confirm Hegseth, this month called him ill-suited to lead the Pentagon. 'With the passing of time, I think it's clear he's out of his depth as a manager of a large, complex organization,' Tillis told CNN. For now, Hegseth's missteps do not seem to have hurt his standing with the person who matters most: Trump. Like Trump, Hegseth had a career in television before joining the administration and relishes the performative aspects of his job. As defense secretary, he regularly posts videos that show him exercising with troops. The photo ops -- known inside the Pentagon as 'troop touches' -- are a central part of almost all his public appearances, current and former aides said. Several officials have complained that the photos and videos -- including one that he posted from Omaha Beach in Normandy in which he joins Army Rangers carrying a soldier on a stretcher as part of D-Day remembrances -- are distractions that serve primarily to bolster his image. Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, said that Hegseth retained Trump's 'full confidence' and cited the 'critical role' he played 'in ensuring the flawless execution' of the strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in June. Current and former military officials said that Trump largely bypassed Hegseth in the days leading up to the strikes and instead relied on Caine and Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, the head of Central Command, for counsel. But officials with knowledge of the president's thinking said Trump especially admired his defense secretary's combative response at a news conference to reports questioning the effectiveness of the attack. Today Hegseth is managing the Pentagon with a smaller immediate staff than when he started in January. Several top aides were forced out or quit. In late April, three top aides were fired and escorted from the building. Hegseth has repeatedly accused them, without offering evidence, of leaking classified information to the media. The fired aides, who have not been charged with any wrongdoing, were recently told that an investigation into the allegations against them was in its final stages and would soon be shared with the Pentagon's senior leaders, officials said. In the wake of their dismissal and a series of negative stories about Hegseth's performance in the job, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, offered a window into how Hegseth views the department he now runs. 'This is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you and working against the monumental change you are trying to implement,' she said. That same spirit seems to animate the Pentagon today. Only a few months ago, Sims' promotion to four stars seemed to be a given. Of the last 21 officers to hold his current position, 19 were promoted to four-star rank. 'He's the type of person you would want your kids serving under -- extremely dedicated, selfless and loyal,' said Brynt Parmeter, who stepped down in June as the Pentagon's chief talent management officer and has known Sims for more than three decades. The Pentagon gave a more muted assessment. In a statement, Sean Parnell, the Pentagon's chief spokesperson, thanked Sims for his 'decades of service.' 'We wish him well in his future endeavors,' Parnell wrote. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2025
Chicago Tribune
20 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
Christi Parsons: Abraham Lincoln's empathy is what our divided nation needs
In our era, they might seem like performative gestures for the president. A quiet visit with the wife of a wounded soldier. A conversation with a battlefield nurse or a kitchen worker. A hand extended to a Black woman who had once been enslaved. Abraham Lincoln didn't publicize these moments, though. He prioritized them for personal reasons. Because even as he held the Union together with the force of his will — even as he buried his own child and bore the weight of a nation at war — he made time for mercy. He listened to the voices of those without power, a practice that steeled him for wielding his own. Empathy is getting a bad rap these days. Elon Musk recently declared it the 'fundamental weakness' of Western civilization, summing up the ethos of the administration he just left. Even those who defend empathy speak of it mainly as a private virtue, not one that compels any particular action by public figures. But in the hands of a great leader, empathy can become a powerful political force. Whenever America has begun to fray — during war, depression, civil upheaval — the country has rallied behind a president who focused on the disenfranchised. If we're to survive our current crisis of division, our civic leaders need to do the same thing. And, as citizens, so do we. Maybe that's why Lincoln's name keeps rising in our conversations, as historians and storytellers nudge us in this direction. Lincoln is a figure in exhibits, podcasts and intellectual festivals this summer. The Metropolitan Opera is working to produce George Saunders' moving novel 'Lincoln in the Bardo,' a deeply empathetic portrayal of the 16th president. New scholarship further reveals a deeply sensitive and heartfelt man. In this modern moment of anxiety, they're showing the way to a better place — or at least the first step toward it. How did Lincoln cultivate the trait of empathy? Partly by surrounding himself with compassionate people. That's according to 'Loving Lincoln,' a new biography examining his story through the lives of the women who, despite their lack of franchise, were his key influencers. By his female relatives, Lincoln was nurtured into what his stepmother called 'the best boy I ever saw,' historian Stacy Lynn writes. Their stories 'offer evidence of Lincoln's kindness and sensitivity, his patience, his moral center, his social and political virtues, the breadth of his compassion, and his inspirational legacy.' By far, the deepest relationship of his life was with his wife, Mary, whose steely resolve helped bolster his commitment to freeing enslaved people. She was in favor of emancipation very early on, and she pressed her husband on the issue. The Lincoln White House became a place of mercy and goodwill, in no small part because of the compassion the president showed for his wife in her grief. He welcomed Black people to the White House. Mary Dines, who worked in the kitchen, urged Lincoln to visit the camps where newly freed families lived, and he went. Elizabeth Keckley, a formerly enslaved woman who became Mary Lincoln's dressmaker and confidante, called him 'kind and generous by nature.' Editorial: The idea of America, under stressLincoln also welcomed Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth. 'I never was treated by any one with more kindness and cordiality than were shown to me by that great and good man, Abraham Lincoln,' Truth said later. To meet the gaze of all these people, to shake their hands, to give them audience — these were not symbolic gestures. They were radical acts of inclusion by the leader who kept the Union intact. This is meaningful for us today, in our moment of deep national division. For those in office, the life of Lincoln is a guideline. He spoke publicly of the need for love and compassion. He surrounded himself with confidantes who embraced it. And he took action on it, ultimately assisting the emancipation of 4 million people from bondage. Elected officials today can do likewise. They can reject the dogma of hatred in discussing immigration. They can surround themselves with advisers who, even if they favor downsizing government, hold respect for public service and public servants. They can vote and act with care for those on the margins of society. But the work of public compassion isn't all on their shoulders. Each of us can train ourselves individually for compassion. A good first step is the one Lincoln modeled all his life. We can start today by using compassionate language, a practice that can lead to feeling it in the heart. Research shows language doesn't just express emotion — it can help shape it. Certain practices can actually increase activity in the neural networks that enhance empathy and emotional regulation. Showing empathy to others feels good, too. Compassion, as with charity, begins at home. Ultimately, though, we have a compassionate responsibility to one another. So what can we as individuals do to fulfill it? We can reach out to friends and family members with differing perspectives. We can try to talk, understand and share. We can reward kindness in those who seek our votes — this fall, next year and the two after that. We can help change the national tenor by changing our own. In the grand scheme of things, it was just a few years ago that Lincoln led our country through something much worse than the conflict we're now experiencing. His example feels even more relevant when we consider how powerfully his words land in our hearts today. He's telling us how to bind up the wounds of our nation, 'with malice toward none, with charity for all.' For the love of Lincoln, let's listen. Christi Parsons is a former Tribune White House correspondent and a longtime political journalist now on the faculty at the University of Maryland.
Los Angeles Times
20 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Can the president and first lady of France stop Candace Owens' lies?
Why is American right-wing commentator Candace Owens so obsessed with French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte? 'I am disgusted by your relationship,' Owens said in January, after the Macrons asked her to stop accusing the French first lady of being a transgender woman. 'You make me sick, Brigitte.' Sure, in our patriarchal world, it's unusual for a wife to be 24 years older than her husband. But President Trump is also 24 years older than his wife, Melania. So, seriously, what is the big whoop? One answer can be found in the 219-page defamation lawsuit filed Wednesday against Owens by the Macrons in Delaware Superior Court. In exhaustive detail, the lawsuit lays out the preposterous claims made by Owens about the French first couple, subjecting them to 'a campaign of global humiliation.' The law firm representing the Macrons, Clare Locke, is the same outfit that won a massive settlement against Fox News for defaming Dominion Voting Systems in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election. As the lawsuit recounts, in March 2024, Owens was dismissed by Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire media operation after making a series of antisemitic comments, including repeating the 'blood libel' that Jews drink the blood of Christian babies. In June 2024, she launched her newly independent YouTube channel and, according to the Macron lawsuit, was hungry for attention and 'searching for a salacious conspiracy theory to increase viewership.' At one point on X, she described her wackadoodle claims about the Macrons as the 'biggest scandal that has ever happened in politics in human history.' Oh, I dunno. As far as political scandals go, I think real ones like Watergate, Iran-Contra and the Jan. 6 insurrection were a teensy bit more impactful than a fantasy about a first lady's sex change. So how, exactly, did Owens land on a conspiracy theory focused on the French president and first lady? According to the Macron lawsuit, in September 2019, Owens became involved in French far-right politics after she was invited to be the keynote speaker at the Convention de la Droite (Convention of the Right) in Paris. Her 15-minute speech was the usual Stephen Miller-esque litany of complaints familiar to Christian nationalists: immigrants, political correctness, secularism and, of course, the 'fake news media' are ruining America. She made spectacularly asinine assertions about police killings of unarmed Black men, claiming that in 2016, 'only' 16 unarmed Black men were slain by police and that Black men had a higher chance of being struck by lightning than killed by cops. She also endeared herself to her audience when she accused Macron of being a weak leader and, horrors, a 'globalist.' In any case, it seems that accusing high-profile women of being a transgender has become fashionable on the transphobic far right. As you may recall, some of this country's most heinous conspiracy theorists have leveled the same bizarre charge against Michelle Obama, whose husband, the Hawaii-born former President Obama, was repeatedly accused by Trump of not being born in the U.S. These outlandish accusations spring from the impulse to inflict as much political damage as possible. In early 2025, Owens launched an eight-part series on her YouTube channel called 'Becoming Brigitte.' In it, she claimed the French president is gay. That his relationship with Brigitte is incestuous. That they engage in pedophilia and worship a satanic idol called Baphomet. She has cited a 2021 Daily Mail story as her source, when in fact that piece was a complete debunking of the very conspiracy theories she was promoting. The Daily Mail traced the origin of the conspiracy theory to a piece published two months earlier in a French far-right newsletter, Faits et Documents (Facts and Documents). The allegations, according to the Daily Mail, were an attempt to damage the 2022 reelection prospects of Macron, who faced two right-wing opponents. Fait et Documents claimed no childhood photographs of Brigitte Macron could be found. But, as the Daily Mail — and the Macron lawsuit — note, there is a newspaper announcement of her 1953 birth, photos of her taking communion at 7, and photos of her first wedding. How likely are the French first couple to prevail in a defamation lawsuit? The standard of proof in American courts, especially for people as famous as they are, is very, very high. The Macrons will have to prove that Owens acted with 'actual malice,' that she knew what she was saying is false and said it anyway, or that she acted with reckless disregard for whether it was true or not. The Macrons, according to their lawsuit, sent her three separate retraction demands, explicitly stating that her claims were false, and included evidence such as birth records, marriage records and photographs. They have asked for a jury trial and unspecified damages. Owens has remained defiant, claiming to her nearly 4.5 million YouTube subscribers that the Macrons are trying to silence her, and that their lawsuit is proof that her allegations are correct. 'I am fully prepared to take on this battle,' Owens said. 'On behalf of the entire world, I will see you in court.' Personally, I think she should be nervous. Robert Barnes, the right-wing attorney who defended the loony conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, agrees. 'Owens told some of the dumbest, obvious lies one can tell,' Barnes wrote Thursday on X. 'She has 0% chance of winning in court.' I can hardly wait. Bluesky: @rabcarianThreads: @rabcarian
