The "good trouble" of John Lewis

As an exchange student at Morehouse College in Atlanta in 1964 I did not know John Lewis but I was sometimes around him and others who became icons of the civil rights movement. John Lewis was by far the least polished among them, and the most angry, and the most willing to make some “good trouble” to advance the cause of justice. Many wore the bib overalls that were then one of the uniforms of the movement. Only John Lewis seemed comfortable in them.

With his death, his term “good trouble” now tends to be taken up and indulged with a smile by some of the very people who continue to work against the cause of justice that he led. John Lewis did not make trouble for its own sake. He made trouble to challenge laws that he knew to be unjust. In order to do so he sometimes broke those laws with his actions. We know the consequences he suffered.

How is it that laws can be unjust? After all, aren’t we “a country of laws, not men”?  Yes, but all laws are made by people. Sometimes the people who make the laws, and the people who help them get elected and stay in office, work to create laws that benefit themselves and protect their power in ways that are sometimes unfair and sometimes unjust.

Many laws are unfair, but they do not directly affect our civil right and liberties. Work to overturn or modify those unfair laws is an important part of the John Lewis legacy, one he shares with many others.

Some laws go beyond being unfair and are rightly considered unjust. The “good trouble” John Lewis led, participated in and advocated for so effectively always aimed at overcoming unjust laws. That more important part of his legacy, which requires more courage, is one he shares with many fewer people.