MAKESHIFT CARDBOARD and duct tape banners pressed through the hot air alongside billowing American flags as Palo Alto community members rallied at King Plaza last week to honor the late civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis and resist what they characterized as recent attacks against civil and human rights.
The rally was one of more than 1,600 “Good Trouble Lives On” events across the U.S. aimed at using non-violent action to respond to recent policies from President Donald Trump’s administration.
Specifically, the events protested the “extreme crackdown on our civil rights by the Trump administration,” “attacks on black and brown Americans, immigrants, trans people,” and “slashing of programs that working people rely on,” according to the Good Trouble Lives On website.
The event also marked the fifth annual John Lewis National Day of Action for the five-year anniversary of Lewis’ passing. The rally’s slogan, “good trouble,” originates from Lewis’ quote, “get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.”
At plastic folding table booths covered with flyers and hosted by local organizations including the League of Women Voters of Palo Alto, Swing Left Peninsula, and the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP, neighbors chatted and sweaty fingers grasped tightly at pens as determined hands quickly filled postcards and letters.
James Staten, who helped run the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP booth, shared that he attended the event because “all human beings whether they’re undocumented or asylum seekers or any other way — are still due basic human rights and civil rights, and those are being violated.”
“As a civil rights organization, we can’t stand by and let that happen. As a human being in this country, I can’t stand by and let that happen,” Staten said.
At a music stand and a microphone under a canopy tent centered in the plaza, speakers, including retired Superior Court judge LaDoris Cordell, League of Women Voters of Palo Alto co-president Lisa Ratner, and National Voter Corps founder Alice Smith, galvanized the crowd.
“If you don’t understand the facts, you’re following someone else, and that means you’re being persuaded. You are not actually using your intelligence, and that’s what the current administration wants. They don’t want facts. They don’t want you to know the law,” Smith said.
“And if you keep talking back there, you won’t know the law either,” she added, shushing the crowd.
San Jose teacher Erin Hebard shared that she attended the event with her mother “because we can’t not be [here].”
Hebard elaborated that as a Spanish bilingual teacher for fifth graders, she has witnessed firsthand the impact of the Trump administration’s immigration policies on her students.
“I have a door monitor — the job changes every week — and I was constantly having to remind them, ‘look, move the curtain aside, check before you open the door,’” Hebard said. “Donald Trump gets into office … and all of the sudden it’s not a problem to get them to check, because the door monitor goes over to the door, and at least half the class goes, ‘make sure it’s not ICE before you open the door.’”
Palo Alto resident Paige McKerral explained that she dressed up as a suffragette for the event in line with historic protest movements.
“We wanted to represent that it works. It worked before, and, if it comes down to it, we’ll just do it again. We’re never going to stop coming. People will never stop fighting for their rights,” McKerral said.
McKerral shared that she particularly valued women’s voting rights because she “was always raised with the knowledge that my grandmother was born a month before women had the right to vote.”
“That was how short it really was — that in my grandmother’s lifetime I couldn’t vote,” she said. “My mother always took me to the polling places. My grandmother, my mother, myself, my sister: not one of us have ever missed an election.”
Palo Alto resident Jules Neuman said they attended the event because “frankly, our government is quickly descending into fascism, and we can’t let that happen.” As a member of the LGBTQ community, Neuman shared they felt personally connected to the rally.
“I’m nonbinary, and trans rights directly affect my access to health care as well as the access to health care of many of my friends who are also transgender. It’s really sad to see our rights being taken away after we fought so hard for them,” Neuman said.
Cordell urged the crowd to “work together and move forward” as a “broad collation.”
She closed the rally with Lewis’ words: “We are one people, one family: the human family. We all live in one house: the American house, the world house. Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful. Be optimistic. The struggle is long, but I believe that we can overcome.”