Six years after congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis died, hundreds gathered at Foley Square honoring his legacy by getting into what he famously called: \u201cgood trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Organizers say they\u2019re responding to what they describe as increasing attacks on Black and immigrant communities, with voting rights at the center of their concerns
\n
The late Rep. John Lewis helped lead and nearly lost his life marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama, in 1965, helping galvanize support for the Voting Rights Act later that year
\n
Demonstrators say protections he fought for are being weakened, not only by President Donald Trump, but by the courts<\/p>\n
Organizers say they\u2019re responding to what they describe as increasing attacks on Black and immigrant communities, with voting rights at the center of their concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m all about good trouble. It\u2019s important that we come together, and we occupy spaces like this and have our voices be heard because if we don\u2019t, the powers that be will do it for us,\u201d Manhattan resident Joffy Jo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood trouble to me means always doing what you feel is morally right,\u201d Brooklyn resident Debbie Campbell said.<\/p>\n
Lewis helped lead and nearly lost his life marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama, in 1965, helping galvanize support for the Voting Rights Act later that year.<\/p>\n
But demonstrators say protections he fought for are being weakened, not only by President Donald Trump but by the courts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis Supreme Court under John Roberts has sought to tear down voting rights, and he\u2019s succeeded,\u201d Manhattan resident Merily Mclaughlin said.<\/p>\n
Recent Supreme Court decisions have restricted the use of the Voting Rights Act in redistricting cases, and made some racial gerrymandering challenges more difficult to prove.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t just stand back and say, \u2018What a shame.\u2019 We have to do something about it,\u201d activist and mother of Eric Garner, Gwen Carr, said.<\/p>\n
The rally also follows Trump\u2019s call Thursday for tighter voting laws, and his renewed challenge to his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
Courts, recounts, audits and federal investigations found no fraud sufficient to overturn his loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to fight like we have never fought before. They are taking down the Voting Rights Act in front of our faces. They took down affirmative action. They\u2019re taking away Black History,\u201d Queens resident Rev. Ronald McHenry said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Six years after congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis died, hundreds gathered at Foley Square honoring his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[387,25,388,75,84,83,9,24,12,63,308,27,200],"class_list":["post-299334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-app-public-safety","tag-app-top-stories","tag-louis-finley","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-public-safety","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299334"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299334\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}