‘Good Trouble Lives On’ events helds in LA County

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dozens rallied in Santa Clarita Thursday as part of a nationwide protest of the Trump administration’s recent policies. Multimedia journalist Anna Albaryan spoke with a health care worker about the recent cuts to Medicaid and why she decided to go out and make her voice heard. Click the arrow above to watch the full report.

LOS ANGELES — Events took place throughout Los Angeles County Thursday for “Good Trouble Lives On,” billed by organizers as a “national day of nonviolent action” on the fifth anniversary of the death of Rep. John Lewis, D-Georgia.

The phrase was coined by Lewis, a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, to explain the action of coming together to take peaceful, nonviolent action to challenge injustice and create meaningful change.

“This is more than a protest; it’s a moral reckoning,” organizers said.

Pparticipants were asked “to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values.”

Los Angeles County events include a candlelight vigil at Los Angeles City Hall beginning at 4:30 p.m.; an “Interfaith Vigil for Immigrant Neighbors,” at 6 p.m. at the Marvin Braude Municipal Building in Van Nuys; and a “Candlelight Vigil for Patients & Against ICE in Hospitals” at 6:30 p.m. at 114 W Laurel St. in Glendale, adjacent to Dignity Health-Glendale Memorial Hospital and Health Center where activists have denounced what they called the continued presence of Immigration Customs Enforcement agents and contractors in the lobby of the hospital where a woman was recovering after suffering a medical emergency while being detained.

Other events are planned for:

• Burbank, 4:30 p.m.,  Abraham Lincoln Park., 300 N. Buena Vista St.
• Claremont, 4:30 p.m., Foothill and North Indian Hill boulevards
• Pasadena, 5 p.m., Memorial Park, 85 E Holly St.
• Woodland Hills, 6 p.m., northeast corner of Topanga Canyon and Victory boulevards
• Long Beach, 6:30 p.m., Bixby Park Annex, Junipero Ave.
• Whittier, 6:30 p.m., Whittier City Hall, 13230 Penn St.
• West Hollywood, 7 p.m., West Hollywood Park, 647 N. San Vicente Blvd

The events in Van Nuys, Santa Clarita and Claremont were organized by Service Employees International Local 2015, which bills itself as the largest union in California, representing more than 500,000 long-term care workers.

A detailed description of events is available here.

Lewis participated in the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, was a Freedom Rider who rode interstate buses to force their integration, and helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington.

In 1965, Lewis led the first of three Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where he and other protesters were brutally attacked by law enforcement officers in what was later called “Bloody Sunday.” The marches spurred support for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Lewis was a House member from 1987 until his death in 2020.