Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Where I Stand:

May we all be inspired to make good trouble

Editor’s note: As he does every August, Brian Greenspun is turning over his Where I Stand column to others. Today’s guest is Laura Martin, executive director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.

Emmet Till was only a year and some months younger than the late Congressman John Lewis when photos of his disfigured and swollen body in an open casket flashed across the front pages of newspapers throughout the country. I can only imagine the wave of fear that washed over Lewis as he learned that a young Black boy, much like himself — in a town about the same distance from his hometown of Troy, Ala., as Las Vegas is from Reno — could be kidnapped, beaten, tortured and murdered over an accusation that the nation would eventually learn was simply a lie.

Despite the trauma Lewis faced as a young man growing up in the Jim Crow South, as he liked to say, he never gave up, and never gave in. His life’s path took him to soaring heights: the youngest speaker at the March on Washington for Jobs and Justice; the Oval Office for the signing of the Civil Rights Act and later the Voting Rights Act; and eventually his own seat in Congress. This was Lewis’ way of making what he called “good trouble” — staring down the face of injustice and evil, demanding change, and eventually pulling up his own seat to the tables of power.

Despite the strides civil rights leaders have made, it is clear we have much further to go, and I hope Lewis’ legacy inspires Nevadans to continue our own organizing, get into some good trouble, and build a more fair and just Nevada.

First, we have to acknowledge that as Nevada slowly grows out of its “Mississippi of the West” phase, we still exist in a series of paradoxes. We’ve seen public protests move politicians to act on policing reform while rural county sheriffs have declared they would rather not protect and serve those who claim their support for Black lives. The first Ethiopian-American legislator in the country serves in Nevada alongside one colleague who said he’d vote to bring back slavery if his constituents wanted it, and another who has referred to Black Democrats as “simple-minded darkies.”

These paradoxes should, rather than discourage us, be the fuel that prepares us to participate in that good trouble for the long haul — while acknowledging these paradoxes (and many others) can take root when apathy or indifference sets in. What has been encouraging to me is the emerging wave of advocacy — much of it not attached to any one organization or political party — that has swept through our state in the aftermath of the on-camera lynching of George Floyd in May. While it’s a given that Las Vegas and Reno would host large and continued public protests, we should note that the protests we’ve seen in Baker, Douglas County, Carson City, Boulder City and throughout the state are pretty unprecedented.

Nevadans are showing that they will not stay silent in the face of violence and terror. And we will not just address one incident at a time and move on, but demand justice by addressing root causes and systems that perpetuate and foster inequities and state violence.

From the Black Lives Matter movement emerges not just the need to reimagine what safety and justice looks like for our communities in terms of policing, but also how the lack of justice and the imbalance of power takes root in all facets of our lives, including housing, child care, immigration, workers’ rights and protecting our environment. This pandemic has made crystal clear the price our communities pay when these inequities are addressed piecemeal, if at all. We can no longer leave these problems behind for the next generation to inherit.

Those who stand in the way of justice, who live in the comfort of the good ol’ boy and gal network, won’t just age out. Their policies, their legacies have to be organized out by a multiracial and multigenerational coalition of Nevadans armed with a clear analysis of solidarity and justice. And I believe it can be done. The future and longevity of our state depends on it.

John Lewis’ last public appearance before he died was at the Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C. It was a powerful image, to be sure, but is also was a reminder of how much further we have to go. Lewis stood mere feet from the White House occupied by a president not known for his commitment to racial justice. And further down the way was the Supreme Court that gutted the Voting Rights Act for which Lewis shed blood.

His life was bookended by two lynchings that dominated national headlines and kitchen table conversations. We must commit ourselves to build a world for our children where injustice is not inevitable.

Good trouble is needed now more than ever. And I’m honored to be part of this fight.