Jul 16, 2025 - News
"Good Trouble" protests planned in metro Atlanta
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to protest the Trump administration again on Thursday, the fifth anniversary of the death of civil rights leader and former congressman John Lewis.
Why it matters: Lewis, the son of sharecroppers in rural Alabama who was brutally attacked during a march for voting rights in 1965 and later represented Atlanta in Congress, was one of the most vocal critics of Trump during his first administration.
By the numbers: 56,000 people RSVP'd for more than 1,500 events across the country as of Friday, organizers said.
- 10 events are scheduled in metro Atlanta, including a rally at the can't-miss "H E R O" mural honoring Lewis on Auburn Avenue.
Flashback: Lewis was one of the organizers and speakers for the historic 1963 March on Washington.
- One of the original Freedom Riders who rode buses from the North to the South to challenge segregation, Lewis had his skull fractured after Alabama state troopers beat him on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma during the march for voting rights on March 7, 1965. He nonetheless remained a longtime advocate of nonviolent protest.
- He served in the House of Representatives from 1987 until his death in 2020 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.