Chicago 'Good Trouble' protests: Crowds to rally against Trump today

Chicago 'Good Trouble' protest happening tonight

?Good Trouble Lives On" protests will take place in Chicago today, rallying against President Donald Trump and his policies.

CHICAGO - "Good Trouble Lives On" protests will take place in Chicago today, rallying against President Donald Trump and his policies.

The "Good Trouble Lives On" national day of action honors the late congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis. Protests are expected to be held nationwide along streets, at courthouses and other public spaces. Organizers are calling for them to be peaceful.

Chicago "Good Trouble" protest

What we know:

Chicago will be the flagship city for Thursday's protests with demonstrators scheduled to gather at Federal Plaza at 4:30 p.m. They will speak out against Trump's policies that include mass deportations and cuts to Medicaid and other safety nets for poor people.

Betty Magness, executive vice president of the League of Women Voters Chicago and one of the organizers of Chicago’s event, said the rally will also include a candlelight vigil to honor Lewis.

Much of the rest of the rally will have a livelier tone, Magness said, adding "we have a DJ who’s gonna rock us with boots on the ground."

Several local suburbs are holding their own "Good Trouble" protests, such as Park Ridge, Arlington Heights and Palatine among others.

What they're saying:

"We are navigating one of the most terrifying moments in our nation’s history," Public Citizen co-president Lisa Gilbert said during an online news conference Tuesday. "We are all grappling with a rise of authoritarianism and lawlessness within our administration ... as the rights, freedoms and expectations of our very democracy are being challenged."

Legacy of John Lewis

The backstory:

Lewis first was elected to Congress in 1986. He died in 2020 at the age of 80 following an advanced pancreatic cancer diagnosis.

He was the youngest and last survivor of the Big Six civil rights activists, a group led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. In 1965, a 25-year-old Lewis led some 600 protesters in the Bloody Sunday march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. Lewis was beaten by police, suffering a skull fracture.

Within days, King led more marches in the state, and President Lyndon Johnson pressed Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act that later became law.

"Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and redeem the soul of America," Lewis said in 2020 while commemorating the 1965 voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.