John Lewis’ legacy lives on
Heat played a big role at a standing-room-only event called Good Trouble Lives On, honoring the late Civil Rights leader and congressman John Lewis July 17.
The event was one of hundreds planned nationwide to celebrate Lewis’ legacy. Lewis, 80, died July 17, 2020, after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives for 33 years.
First, 100-degree temperatures forced the Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice to move the event from Johnnie Walker Beach in Lewes to the sanctuary at Epworth United Methodist Church in Rehoboth Beach.
Then, speakers urged people to turn up the heat and create the good trouble that Lewis called for and, most of all, vote.
SDARJ organizers said the event was about hope and inspiration, not a protest. People checked their protest signs at the door.
They encouraged the audience to embrace Lewis’ hope and vision that continue to energize the ongoing fight for freedom and civil rights.
“America is falling, but we have a window of opportunity to catch ourselves,” said the Rev. Dania Griffin, pastor of Frankford AME Church, the keynote speaker. “Our struggle is a struggle to redeem the soul of America. It’s not a struggle that lasts a few days, weeks, months or years. It’s a struggle of a lifetime.”
Bill Shull has been covering Lewes for the Cape Gazette since 2023. He comes to the world of print journalism after 40 years in TV news. Bill has worked in his hometown of Philadelphia, as well as Atlanta and Washington, D.C. He came to Lewes in 2014 to help launch WRDE-TV. Bill served as WRDE’s news director for more than eight years, working in Lewes and Milton. He is a 1986 graduate of Penn State University. Bill is an avid aviation and wildlife photographer, and a big Penn State football, Eagles, Phillies and PGA Tour golf fan. Bill, his wife Jill and their rescue cat, Lucky, live in Rehoboth Beach.
