This year’s Good Trouble Gala on May 29 marked a homecoming for the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation and the legacy of the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis. Held in Atlanta for the first time, the event honored a new generation of leaders continuing the work of Lewis and wife Lillian Mile Lewis' work through civic engagement, education, and, of course, "good trouble." Ahead of the event, GPB’s Pamela Kirkland sat down with Detria Austin Everson, president and CEO of the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation, to talk about the foundation’s mission and what it meant to bring the gala back to the city that shaped Lewis' life and legacy.

Transcript:

Pamela Kirkland: This is Morning Edition on GPB. I'm Pamela Kirkland. This week, the legacy of the late congressman John Lewis and his wife, Lillian Miles Lewis, will be honored in Atlanta, the city they called home. The John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation is hosting its annual Good Trouble Gala, celebrating a new generation of change makers and the timeless call to make "good trouble." Detria Austin-Everson is president and CEO of the foundation and she joins me now.

Detria Austin Everson: Thank you. It's such a joy to be with you, Pamela. We really appreciate this opportunity.

Pamela Kirkland: Thank you for joining us this morning. So let's start with the heart of it all. Just for listeners who may not be familiar, what exactly is the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation?

Detria Austin Everson: So the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation is a foundation that was created by Congressman Lewis himself. It's an organization that was designed and grounded by Congressman Lewis to carry on the work that he and his wife Lillia Miles Lewis believed in so dearly. They both were focused on education, civil and human rights. They were focused on advocacy and just making sure that the world became more loving, more just and more peaceful. And so the foundation is really established to carry on his work.

Pamela Kirkland: And this is the first time that the Good Trouble Gala is being held in Atlanta. What does it mean to bring this celebration home to the city that Congressman Lewis loved and served for so long?

Detria Austin Everson: It is exciting. Our board and our chairman and our leaders and I, we are all so very excited to be here in Atlanta. Atlanta was home to Congressman Lewis and this is where he and his wife, you know, raised their family. This is where they served for 34 years. Georgia sent him to D.C. to serve and represent on our behalf. And just to have it here in Atlanta where the people who made a choice to make sure that he was their representative, it means so much to us to be here in Atlanta for this gala and we are excited to share this with everyone in the community. And most people may not know that Congressman Lewis established the foundation here in Atlanta, Ga. And so this is home for Congressman Lewis's life and legacy and it is home to the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation.

Pamela Kirkland: Tell me a little bit more about how the gala embodies the mission of the foundation.

Detria Austin Everson: Our work is grounded in many of the things that people knew Congressman Lewis to care about, which was civil rights, human rights and democracy. And so the gala is going to focus on a good bit of the work that we do across our communities. Our main focus is to amplify youth civic engagement. We work through our bridge program to engage students throughout the area and beyond to focus on learning about how to engage them in strategies for increasing voter registration and participation and learning about overall democracy. A large portion of the work that we do will be to preserve and promote civil rights history. So continuing to tell those stories that allow people to understand the journey that Congressman Lewis and so many others took that made opportunities that we enjoy today so possible. We also want to make sure that we continue to focus on defining and promoting "good trouble." Congressman Lewis called us all to be sure we stand up and speak out about things that we knew were unjust and unfair across our communities, and we want to be sure that we're continuing to define and promote that good trouble among our young people, but across all generations. Because good trouble is not just about young people. good trouble is something we can get into at any age, if we're ever confronted with an opportunity to stand up and speak on about things that are not fair and not right and not just.

Pamela Kirkland: Detria Austin Everson is president and CEO of the John and Lillian Miles Lewis Foundation. Thanks so much for joining me on Morning Edition.

Detria Austin Everson: Thank you so much for having us. We are grateful for this opportunity.

Tags: Georgia  Georgia  John Lewis  Good Trouble  Smithsonian