By Marian Wright Edelman
Earlier this week, groups protesting the current administration’s stands on civil and human rights held a “Good Trouble Lives On” Day of Action, honoring the fifth anniversary of beloved Congressman John Lewis’s death with his familiar words. John Lewis especially loved reminding young people that they should never be afraid to get into good trouble by standing up for what they believed in, and college-aged young people preparing to serve in Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) Freedom Schools® summer programs were blessed to have the opportunity to hear this message firsthand when he spoke at their National Training in 2014, telling them that when he was their age getting into “necessary trouble” shaped his life’s mission.
He described his childhood in rural Troy, Alabama, where he worked on his family’s farm but was always desperate to get an education. A teacher encouraged him to read all he could, and although he wasn’t allowed in his segregated county library like so many of our generation, he tried his best—reading and rereading the few books they owned at home, and borrowing his grandfather’s newspaper every evening when he was done with it, since his family couldn’t afford their own subscription. He also listened to the radio to learn more about the news outside his small community, and eventually started hearing about events that would change his life: “In 1955, 15 years old in the 10th grade, I heard of Rosa Parks. I heard of Martin Luther King, Jr. I heard his voice on an old radio, and it seemed like he was saying, “John Lewis, you, too, can do something . . . You can make a contribution.” He decided then that was exactly what he would do.
He tried to begin with the library: “So in 1956, 16 years old, some of my brothers and sisters and cousins, we went down to the public library in the little town of Troy, Alabama, trying to get a library card, trying to check out some books, and we were told by the librarian that the library is for Whites only and not for coloreds.” A year later, as a high school senior he tried to apply to Troy State College (now Troy University), a White college close to his home, but his application was ignored. John Lewis was stopped temporarily—but he was not finished. Without telling his parents or anyone else what he was doing, he wrote a letter to Dr. King asking for his help, and Dr. King responded by sending him a round-trip Greyhound bus ticket and inviting him to come to Montgomery to meet with him. By then he had enrolled in his first year at American Baptist Theological Seminary (now American Baptist College) in Nashville, and over his spring break the 18-year-old decided to take Dr. King up on his offer. As he told our rapt audience, “Meeting Martin Luther King Jr., meeting Ralph Abernathy, meeting Rosa Parks, and later meeting Jim Lawson, who taught me the way of peace, the way of love, the way of nonviolence, changed my life and set me on a path. And I haven’t looked back since.”
He explained that his parents and community hadn’t taught him to challenge segregation: “When I would ask my parents about those signs they would say, ‘That’s the way it is. Don’t get in the way. Don’t get in trouble.’” But his experience in the Civil Rights Movement taught him a different lesson, and he always wanted others to do the same: “I got in good trouble, necessary trouble. I say to you, you’re more than lucky, you are blessed, and you have to use whatever you see to pass it on to someone else. Bless someone else. Be bold. Be brave. Be courageous. Speak up. Speak out. You must get out there and push and pull and help change things and bring about a nonviolent revolution, a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas . . . Someone must put out and say what is going on is not right, it is not fair, it is not just, and we are here to do something about it . . . If we fail to do it, history will not be kind to us.” He left the CDF Freedom Schools servant-leaders with a final familiar encouragement: “Go out there and be a headlight and not a taillight. Get out there and get in the way, get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and be yourself. It will all work out.”
In just a few days, young people at CDF Freedom Schools sites across the country will come together for their annual National Day of Social Action on July 23. This year, scholars in grades K-12 will be rallying, marching, and meeting with elected officials to demand strong, civic-minded education, sharing the urgent message that public education is a public good. As the Department of Education itself is being systematically dismantled, these young people are still heeding John Lewis’s message, and are determined to help change things and stand up for the education they want and deserve. They are learning to be bright headlights and internalizing the core CDF Freedom Schools lesson you are never too young to make a difference.