Community members gathered Thursday at Shively Hall for a "Good Trouble" event to honor the late civil rights leader and U.S. Rep. John Lewis. Mathias Lehman-Winters

Residents honor the legacy of John Lewis

 

About 50 people gathered Thursday evening in Shively Park for a “Good Trouble” event in honor of the late congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis. 

The gathering in Shively Hall was held in conjunction with over 1,500 other demonstrations across all 50 states. Thursday marked the fifth anniversary of the passing of Lewis, a former U.S. representative from Georgia.

A contemporary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Lewis joined sit-ins to desegregate lunch counters in Nashville in 1960, according to a historical site for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Lewis founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a national civil rights organization, according to the website, and he took part in the first of the Freedom Rides, which sought to desegregate interstate busing in the south.

Astoria resident Joseph Stevenson joined the 1961 Freedom Rides at the age of 18, he told those gathered at Shively Hall. Stevenson said he traveled from Los Angeles to Houston in a racially integrated group. Upon arriving in Texas, he was jailed and beaten. 

“They (the other inmates) worked themselves up and then they began to beat us…they beat us for about four hours,” Stevenson said. However, he said that the real credit goes to the activists in the South who began the Civil Rights Movement and carried it forward. “The people who lived there, who started the movement and who carried it on when we left. They did so much more.”

Julia Hesse, the interim coordinator of Indivisible North Coast Oregon and a planner of the gathering, said such events are critical for democracy.

“One of the messages he (John Lewis) left us with was ‘make good trouble.’ And so that’s the name of this event,” Hesse said. “Good trouble lives on like his legacy is living on through us and what we do today to mount our resistance to the authoritarian takeover of our government and democracy.”

Stephanie Robinson, another planner of the event, said, “We are hoping to bring people together to get motivated, to address what is happening in Washington (D.C.).”

Hesse said that the event was intended to build community connections, as well as be a demonstration. 

“Part of what we’re having is a pack-your-own picnic invite so people can bring their food…and meet each other and talk,” Hesse said.