John Lewis’s Enduring Example

We have no right to give up on democracy or our fellow Americans

Over 1500 “Good Trouble” events have been organized for today, commemorating the 5^th anniversary of John Lewis’s passing. A courageous civil rights activist who endured horrific, life-threatening beatings, and an eloquent advocate for nonviolent action in pursuit of social justice, Lewis—we can imagine—would express sorrow today, witnessing decades of civil rights protections and improvements in the social safety net being torn down in the name of an overtly racist, xenophobic, and anti-democratic movement.

And still, Lewis might have found today’s political environment eerily familiar. He was born into the undemocratic South, in which a White oligarchy relegated Blacks to the margins and perpetrated violence against them, during a time when they lacked full citizenship. We recoil today at the never-ceasing hateful MAGA rhetoric, demonization of migrants, and scapegoating of nonwhites and women. Surely, Lewis knew in his bones what that was all about. Deprivation of due process and incarceration in inhumane conditions? Lewis experienced that as well.

He also endured frustration in the 1960s (and beyond) with politicians’ timidity in the face of great moral wrongs. “To those who have said, ‘Be patient and wait,’ we have long said that we cannot be patient,” he said at the March on Washington in 1963. He recognized that the country was in the midst of a “great revolution,” and he admonished Americans:

“Get in and stay in the streets of every city, every village and hamlet of this nation until true freedom comes, until the revolution of 1776 is complete.”

He vowed to march through the South and everywhere else but to “march with the spirit of love and with the spirit of dignity that we have shown here today.”

Much more recently, in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, Lewis expressed anguish and grief that young Black men were still dying at the hands of police. He told CBS’s Gayle King in a June, 2020 interview: “It was so painful. It made me cry. I kept saying to myself, ‘how many more? How many more young black men will be murdered? The madness must stop.’”

Confirming that the fight for civil rights is never completely won, he told Gayle King, “It was very moving, very moving to see hundreds and thousands of people from all over America and around the world take to the streets to speak up, to speak out, to get in what I call ‘good trouble,’ but to get into it.”

If someone who witnessed what Lewis had, someone who had risked his life repeatedly, could maintain faith in a multi-generational, multi-ethnic pro-democracy coalition, what right do any of us have to throw up our hands in frustration and walk away from the fight to preserve democracy and eradicate injustice and racism? The fight never ends. “People now understand what the struggle was all about,” he also said in the 2020 interview. “It’s another step down the very, very long road toward freedom, justice for all humankind.”

His exchange is every bit as relevant today:

Gayle King: And what do you think is the role of people who are not black, who want to support the movement? We’re hearing a lot about that.

John Lewis: Well, we all are human. We all are a part of the human family. And it doesn’t matter whether you’re Black or white, Latino, Asian American, or Native American, we’re one people. We’re one family. We all live in the same house, the world house. And as Dr. King said again, we must learn to live together as brothers and sisters. If not, we’ll perish as fools. And I think what’s been going on the past few days is living truth that we all are connected, and nothing, not anything, is going to separate us.

The lesson is plain: Getting out not only today but engaging every day to fight against lawlessness, violence, cruelty, bigotry, and inhumanity is the task of not just the Hispanic community (which is being terrorized daily), not just the Black community (which sees anti-racism and voting rights denigrated as being “DEI”); not just women (whose bodily autonomy has been taken away and whose health is endangered); not just enemies of Trump facing prosecution and persecution (from Miles Taylor to Mahmoud Khalil); and not just those in blue states. Donald Trump’s incompetence and malevolence negatively impact people in red states (including his MAGA followers), too.

We are in this together, and when we ignore injustice, suffering, and cruelty in downtown Los Angeles or in the Florida Everglades, we invite it everywhere. “For many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny,” Dr. King said on the steps of the Lincoln Monument in 1963. “And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.”

In short, if you are fatigued, depressed, or demoralized by the flooded zone of lies and outrages flowing from the Trump regime, get up off the couch and out of the house anyway. Take up the responsibility of citizenship in a democracy. We do not have the luxury to wallow in despair. Our fellow Americans are counting on us to engage in the spirit of Lewis’s good trouble; to peacefully protest, engage with politicians, organize, and vote.