Hundreds of community members gathered at Lincoln Square Mall in Urbana on Thursday to honor the legacy of the late civil rights leader and U.S. Representative John Lewis — and to continue his call to make “good trouble” through peaceful resistance.
Champaign County Indivisible organized the event as part of “Good Trouble Lives On,” a national day of action held on the anniversary of Lewis’ death in 2020. The event offered resources for marginalized communities, along with family-friendly activities such as coloring and live music performances.
Local organizations, including Planned Parenthood Champaign, the ACLU Champaign County Chapter, Champaign Public Library, Cunningham Township and many others, set up tables in the mall’s main corridor. The Champaign County Clerk’s office set up a table for community members to register to vote.
“This is John Lewis’ Legacy,” said Tracey Dougan, co-lead of Champaign County Indivisible. “This is the love of John Lewis, alive and well right here in Champaign County, and we are here today celebrating what he was representing — advocating for the rights of marginalized populations.”
According to promotional materials from the organizers, the event served as a response to what they called “a full-scale attack on our civil and human rights” by the Trump administration and its allies.
They cited specific measures including the SAVE Act, which would require documentary proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections, and a travel ban blocking or restricting entry from 19 countries. They also pointed to expanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations that have led to the detention and deportation of U.S. citizens along with large cuts to social safety nets such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
“Hunger will rise, as will evictions and crime,” said Irene Alexander, family and community engagement coordinator of Champaign County Head Start, when asked about the potential impact of cuts to healthcare and SNAP. “The impact would be homelessness … homelessness has increased in this town.”
Champaign County’s homeless population has increased by 76 over the past year, leading Cunningham Township supervisor Danielle Chynoweth to name it the community’s most pertinent issue. She says record levels of University enrollment is a contributing factor to the crisis.
“There’s been 60,000 students enrolled — what that means is that local people will not get housing,” Chynoweth said. “We’ve seen double digit jumps in the rent over the past couple years … People are stretched to their absolute limit and it’s important that the University collaborate with local community to plan expansions and make sure there is sufficient housing for everyone.”
The University’s growth shows no signs of stopping — after a record number of students were admitted in 2024, the University received a record number of applications for the fall 2025 cycle.
Chynoweth says that while other programs such as LIHEAP, Medicaid and SNAP are “on the cutting block” because they are federally funded, Cunningham Township’s office does not face that issue. The township is funded by Urbana residents and private donations. It provides individuals within the township rental assistance, utility assistance, food support and other services.
“We’re very lucky, so we really take seriously that we are going to be the backbone of support for the community to ride out this time,” Chynoweth said.
Lewis, a civil rights pioneer, participated in the 1960 Nashville sit-ins and the Freedom Rides, and he was the youngest speaker at the 1963 March on Washington. As a 25-year-old and chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Lewis helped organize and led the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, where he was beaten by state troopers during a nonviolent protest for African-American voting rights.
Later that year, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which prohibited racial discrimination in voting. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill into law with Lewis, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. in attendance.
As a congressman, Lewis represented Georgia’s 5th District for more than three decades, from 1987 until his death. Throughout his career, Lewis urged people to get into “good trouble, necessary trouble” in the face of injustice — a phrase that has since become a rallying cry for organizers nationwide.
