John Lewis Makes Good Trouble

I was curious about how we understand the Civil Rights heroes of yesterday. For too many of us, I fear they remain calcified, historical images existing only in the hazy memories of imagination. The fragmented images of their bold sacrifices are at once familiar and yet unknown, images of humans being beaten and bloodied are so deeply burned into our collective consciousness that we forget they are actual people. What becomes of a man like John Lewis who was famously beaten on a bridge in Selma while marching peacefully for the right to vote? He is not just a photograph, he is still here. Still working, still marching, still organizing, still leading.

So I wanted to explore the world he lived in, and juxtapose that world with his work today. The images and the brutality are breathtaking. But what is often overlooked, is the methodical planning and resiliency it took for those young people to continue their work. The young men and women marching and demonstrating in the South did not stage spontaneous uprisings, they soberly planned their moves. They did not always agree. Some called for confrontation in the face of a violent enemy. But Lewis forged a different path, a path of non-violence and understanding. Perhaps this is why Lewis is so well suited to Congress. His vision, not his bravery, may actually be his superpower. Lasting change requires the boldness to envision a future that wholly departs from the past. Young John Lewis never having seen an integrated school, lunch counter, or mode of public accommodation had to imagine it first.

He still imagines a better world, and he shares that vision with the next generation of leaders, who like those of a generation before them are impatient with the way things are. Lewis now uses his position as a United States Congressman to steadily, insistently and patiently insist America do what is right. He conducts hearings on government corruption, campaigns for the next generation of leaders and even leads sit ins on the floor of the United States House of Representatives. Through it all, he acts with a quiet determination that the sacrifices are worth the trouble. They are Good Trouble, Necessary Trouble.