LOCK HAVEN — On Thursday, July 17, at 5:30-6:30 p.m., over 40 Clinton County residents rallied at Veterans Park in Lock Haven for a “Good Trouble” Rally organized by the Clinton County Democratic Committee (CCDC).

The committee and participants joined over 1,600 other communities on this 5th annual John Lewis Day of Action.

“Good Trouble” is the term John Lewis used when describing non-violent resistance to policies that did not support the civil rights of fairness, justice and equality, according to a release from the CCDC.

John Lewis (1940-2020) was a civil rights icon, who worked tirelessly in communities to promote voter registration drives, lunch counter sit-ins and other forms of resistance to focus on the inequalities in the Jim Crow south and other parts of the country. He helped organize the March on Washington in 1963 and led the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. in 1965 during which he was severely beaten by the police.

These two events mobilized the country to recognize the inequalities inherent in society and paved the way for the Voting Rights Act in 1965 that protected the freedom to vote and to ensure that all communities could have a say in the decisions that affect their futures. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1986 (GA-05) and continued to serve until his death.

John Lewis died on July 17th, 2020, recognizing that his work was not done.

According to the release, in 2013, the Supreme Court struck down parts of the Voting Rights Act making it easier for states to suppress voter participation and implement voter restrictions. In a New York Times Op-ed he wrote days before his death and published on the day of his funeral, he urged supporters to continue the fight for equal rights and repeated his call for Americans to “stand up, speak up and speak out,” and in doing so, get into what he famously called “good trouble, necessary trouble.”

“Thursday, members of our community made good trouble, necessary trouble. We stood up, spoke up, and spoke out to hold elected officials to their oath to uphold the Constitution. We rallied for democracy, equality and justice for all, expanded voting rights, and as John Lewis said, ‘to help redeem the soul of America,'” the CCDC release said.