The legacy of “Good Trouble”: Alfre Woodard, joint title First gala for the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation

John Lewis, a longtime congressman and civil rights leader who died in 2020, left a legacy by creating a foundation that would continue to engage young people in civic engagement, which he called “good luck.”

In Washington, DC this week, Alfred Woodard and Common were among the figures who helped officially launch the effort, at the Schuiler Ballroom Gala at the Hamilton Hotel. It included a performance by Common and a review of a series of speeches called Good Trouble talk. It featured Common and Charlayne Hunter-Gault. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Representative James Clebern (D-SC), Senator Rafael Warnock (D-GA) and Senator John Osoff (D-GA) also spoke.

The event raised funds for John and Lillian Miles for the Lewis Foundation, named after Lewis and his wife, who passed away in 2012. The organization received tax-exempt status in 2019, but after his illness and following the pandemic. of Covid, was officially launched in February. Its CEO Linda Earl Chastang said.

Chastang said they plan to hold Good Trouble talks several times a year in other parts of the country.

“It will be someone you want to hear or need in these different communities,” he said. She said the foundation is working with schools and universities to develop programs that align with the congressman’s priorities: nonviolence, protest, peace. This is exactly what I wanted to do.

He added: “He learned what he calls the ‘Way of Peace’, the ‘Way of Love’ in Nashville, the basement of the First Baptist Church of Tennessee, with his friends Diane Nash, Bernard Lafayette and others, under the supervision. of the bishop. Jim Lawson. The seminars were at the forefront of the Nashville student movement, which opposed segregation in the city through non-violent protests.

“We want to do what he did, what he benefited from, how he learned the way of peace and the way of love. “We want to do this with schools and communities across the country,” she said.

In an interview with MSNBC this week, Woodward said, “As this is Lewis, the mission is guided by moral clarity, truth and integrity. She added that the foundation focuses on the next generation of political participation and voting rights.

“I gave birth to a black girl in Oklahoma,” she said. “You have no choice but to put yourself out there. “I’m not saying you have to go out, get organized and walk the streets, as Brother John Lewis told us. It’s great exercise, but it’s necessary because you don’t exist if you don’t show up. “