REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. - People quickly filed in to in Rehoboth Beach to cause some good trouble Thursday evening.
Good trouble is a saying famously used by civil rights icon Congressman John Lewis who passed away on July 17, 2020.
Lewis was a civil rights leader, politician, minister and agent of change for decades.
Reverend Dania Griffin of Antioch AME Church in Frankford, had some in common with Congressman Lewis, preaching and keeping humility at the forefront of their work as they work with future change agents.
"I think that his legacy while the Martin Luther King is celebrated, and rightfully so, I think in terms of impact to the to the American community and to the world at large, his will be equal to, there's nothing lesser about John Lewis. It speaks to his own sense of humility that he assumes himself to be lesser than all the greatness within him," said Griffin.
Barb Gedges-Goettl is still keeping Lewis' spirit alive by causing her own good trouble as the president of the League of Women Voters of Sussex County.
It's safe to say that voting rights was something Lewis was passionate about, which is why the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2025 is named after him.
"He really believed that it was a way that that disenfranchised, disadvantaged folks could make their voices heard, that it was worth doing. That is the league's position, that everyone should not only have the opportunity to vote, but should know how to vote," Hedges-Goettl explained.
According to Gwendolyn Miller and Joseph Lawson with Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice, the organization that hosted the event,
"Good trouble, especially in this situation, is bringing people, communities, diverse thoughts together that would normally not be in the same space. Championing the same causes, believing in the same ideology and trying to make a difference within this community and beyond. That's good trouble," shared Miller.
"Good trouble is combating the angst and fear and anxieties of people and saying, yes, there is hope. Yes, if we come together and we work together and we talk together and we fellowship together, and sometimes we demonstrate together and we do whatever we need to do together, we can make a difference," said Lawson.
According to these two and the room full of people they were with tonight,
Lewis's spirit still lives on right here in Sussex County.
The event was originally supposed to take place in Lewes at Johnnie Walker Beach however with the heat advisory issued on Thursday, it was moved to the church.
Johnnie Walker Beach was previously known as Beach 2, a segregated beach for Black people.