CHICAGO (AP) — On Thursday, protests and events were organized against President Donald Trump’s controversial policies, including mass deportations and cutbacks to Medicaid and other safety nets for the poor, in more than 1,600 locations across the United States.
The national day of action “Good Trouble Lives On” (“Good Trouble Lives On”) honors the late congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis. Protests are expected to unfold in streets, courthouses, and other public spaces. Organizers are urging them to remain peaceful.
“We are living through one of the most frightening moments in our nation’s history. We are all grappling with an rise in authoritarianism and illegality inside our government,” said Tuesday Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, during an online press conference. “As rights, freedoms, and the very expectations of our democracy are challenged.”
Public Citizen is a nonprofit organization whose stated mission is to confront corporate power. It is part of a coalition of groups backing Thursday’s protests.
Large demonstrations are planned in Atlanta and St. Louis, as well as Oakland, California, and Annapolis, Maryland.
Tribute to John Lewis’s Legacy
Lewis was first elected to Congress in 1986. He died in 2020 at the age of 80 after being diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer.
He was the youngest and last surviving member of the Big Six civil rights activists, a group led by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. In 1965, Lewis, then 25, led about 600 demonstrators in the Bloody Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Lewis was struck by police, suffering a skull fracture.
In a matter of days, King led further marches throughout the state, and President Lyndon B. Johnson pressured Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act, which would later become law.
“Let’s get into good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America,” Lewis said in 2020 while commemorating the 1965 voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
Chicago will be the main city for Thursday’s protests. Demonstrators are expected to gather downtown in the afternoon.
Betty Magness, executive vice president of the Chicago League of Women Voters and one of the organizers of the Chicago event, said the march will also include a candlelight vigil to honor Lewis.
Magness noted that much of the remainder of the demonstration would have a more upbeat tone, adding: “we’ve got a DJ that will keep us grounded and moving.”
Protests Against Trump’s Policies
The resistance to Trump in his second term has thus far focused on deportations and his tactics for enforcing immigration laws.
Earlier this month, protesters clashed in a tense confrontation as federal authorities carried out mass arrests at two marijuana farms in Southern California. A farmworker died after falling from the roof of a greenhouse amid a chaotic raid.
Those raids followed Trump’s extraordinary deployment of the National Guard to federal buildings and to shield immigration agents carrying out arrests in Los Angeles. On June 8, thousands of protesters began taking to the streets in Los Angeles.
And organizers of the June 14 “No Kings” demonstrations said that millions marched at hundreds of events from New York to San Francisco. Protesters characterized Trump as a dictator and a would-be king for celebrating his birthday with a military parade.
