Blessed are the Trouble-Makers
by
John J. Dunphy
Originally published in the 8/22/20 edition of The Telegraph of Alton, IL
I never marched with the late John Lewis, but I heard him speak at Principia College back in 1999. I felt honored just to be in the same auditorium with this civil rights movement icon. His death on July 17 at age 80 deeply saddened me because I knew our nation had lost an extraordinary American at a time when it sorely needs extraordinary Americans.
Lewis knew that many of his fellow citizens found it profoundly depressing that a vile demagogue occupies the Oval Office. In a June 27, 2018 tweet, he counseled us not to lose heart. “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”
Lewis’s civil right activism got him into plenty of “good trouble.” In a Feb. 27, 2016 Facebook post, Lewis wrote, “I was arrested for the first time fifty-six years ago today in downtown Nashville during a nonviolent sit-in to protest segregated lunch counters.” Lewis had a delightful sense of humor. He also noted in this post, “I wanted to look good if I was going to jail so, before the protest, I went to a used men’s store and paid $3 for that suit I’m wearing [in the accompany photograph]. I think I looked pretty good.”
That arrest was merely the first of many for this courageous activist. According to a 2016 article in Smithsonian magazine, “To date, he [Lewis] has racked up at least 45 arrests, most recently while protesting on behalf of comprehensive immigration reform in 2013.”
Lewis’s commitment to justice and equality often placed his life in jeopardy. While leading a march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama on March 7, 1965, a club-wielding state trooper fractured his skull.
While I cherish Lewis’s counsel about the need to get into “good trouble, necessary trouble,” his address at the 1963 March on Washington is even more memorable. “I appeal to all of you to get into this great revolution that is sweeping this nation,” Lewis told the crowd. “Get in and stay in the streets of every city, every village and hamlet of this nation until true freedom comes, until the Revolution of 1776 is complete.”
There is nothing particularly radical about the wave of activism sweeping our nation today. It’s simply the latest effort to complete the American Revolution.
In our Declaration of Independence, Jefferson wrote that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Jefferson didn’t recognize the hypocrisy of owning slaves while proclaiming that all men are created equal and possess the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Contemporary American activists, however, are devoted to completing what Lewis called “the Revolution of 1776” We believe that all human beings, not just all white men, are created equal. We also believe that all human beings, regardless of race, gender, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation and economic status, possess the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Americans of conscience have been striving to make Jefferson’s words more inclusive since 1776. I’m writing these words from the Dunphy Building, which was built in 1831. Nine years later, it was purchased by Massachusetts expatriates Elijah and Sarah Dimmock. Unlike Jefferson, the Dimmocks believed blacks as well as whites possess the unalienable right to liberty and allowed their building to be used as an Underground Railroad station. The Dimmocks risked much for their abolitionism. On at least one occasion, a slave-catcher angrily confronted Elijah and even threatened his life.
Opportunities for getting into “good trouble, necessary trouble” to complete the Revolution of 1776 abound today. May the trouble you make bring you much joy.
John J. Dunphy’s books include Abolitionism and the Civil War in Southwestern Illinois, Lewis and Clark’s Illinois Volunteers, From Christmas to Twelfth Nght in Southern Illinois and Unsung Heroes of the Dachau Trials: The Investigative Work of the U.S. Army 7708 War Crimes Group, 1945–1947.