John Lewis—the man who coined the term “good trouble”—was a pillar for social justice and a staunch advocate for nonviolent civil rights demonstrations. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Lewis was arrested and multiple times in the Jim Crow South for organizing sit-ins at segregated lunch counters and participating in the 1961 Freedom Rides. Dubbed one of the “Big 6” of the civil rights movement (the others include Martin Luther King, Jr., A. Philip Randolph, Roy Wilkins, James Farmer, and Whitney Young), Lewis was the youngest speaker and organizer of the March on Washington. He also led the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and the crossing of Edmund Pettus Bridge, known as “Bloody Sunday,” as state troopers brutally attacked marchers. Lewis suffered a fractured skull, and the events influenced the passing of the Voting Rights Act, which Lewis remained a staunch supporter of until his last days. In 1986, he was elected to the House of Representatives in Georgia’s 5th district. It was a position he held until his death in 2020. The politician was also a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded to him by Barack Obama in 2011.
