“Speak up, speak out,” an amplified voice chanted through a megaphone. 

“That’s what good trouble is about,” replied the crowd of hundreds as they marched down Boylston Street last Thursday.

Boston was one of many U.S. cities that held a Good Trouble Lives On rally July 17, the anniversary of John Lewis’s death, as part of a nationwide protest against the Trump administration.

More than 300 people gathered in Copley Square awaiting a march to Boston Common for a rally in front of the State House. Small children, teenagers and adults — young and elderly alike  — came together under the blazing heat of the sun to peacefully demonstrate their discontent.

“I think it’s very important for the administration to realize people are out there, and they’re not stopping, and they’re not giving up, and if we have to do this for a whole four years, that’s what we’ll do; but it’s also important for the people who are being victimized to know that there are people out here that care about you and you are not alone in that,” said Fiona Patturson, an attendee from Waltham. 

Signs reading “unite for democracy” and “dissent is patriotic” were held high above the sea of heads crowding the Boston Common.

John Lewis, an American civil rights leader and congressman, was well known for his rallying cry of creating “good trouble.” The phrase signified the need for civil disobedience during the civil rights movement and has been called upon again to “defend democracy.” 

Kylie Ariel Bemis, a speaker at the rally and board member of Mass 50501, said in an interview with The Scope that good trouble is about rising as people and bringing the country with them to “fulfill the promises of liberty and justice for all.”

The Boston rally was put on by several different organizations working in coalition with one another, including Mass 50501, ACLU Massachusetts, The New Democracy Coalition and Boston Indivisible. As part of the national day of action, Mass 50501 outlined four goals and demands, aiming to “protect our civil rights and free and fair elections once again,” according to their website. 

“This is very much a nationwide movement for the people who are seeing this threat to our democracy, to our freedom, seeing America turn into a police state, where immigrants can’t go to school or go to their jobs without fearing for their safety, where we no longer can count on having free and fair elections, where we expect our votes to be counted unless we do something to ensure that those elections are protected,” Bemis said. 

President Donald Trump’s policies have become increasingly unpopular among Americans since his return to office last year. Thursday’s rally was just one of many that Boston has hosted as part of the nationwide movement against Trump and his political allies.

“Within Mass 50501, we are really trying to take advantage of any of the big national days of protest to make sure that Boston has a strong presence as part of the overall movement to protect American democracy and our freedoms,” Bemis said. 

Speakers from various organizations, such as Rev. Kevin C. Peterson, founder and executive director of The New Democracy Coalition, told inspirational stories, led chants, stated statistics and incited hope in attendees. Between speakers, the Good Trouble Brass Band, an activist New Orleans-style street band, played jubilant music and was joined by a chorus of voices singing protest songs. 

“I think there’s something really inspiring also about seeing such a big group of people come out and be upset about the same things, I think that it does give a little bit of hope in all of the chaos,” said Sofia Olsson, an attendee from East Boston.

Among the main goals, like protecting free and fair elections by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, is continuing to challenge Trump’s unpopular approach to deportation. 

“Good trouble means disrupting. We aren’t breaking any laws. We aren’t hurting anybody, but we are disrupting, and we’re making it known to people that we’re upset, that we aren’t just going to stand by and let all of this happen to us,” Olsson said. “I think good trouble is about kind of reclaiming a little bit of agency within a system that feels very oppressive.”

Boston is home to a significant immigrant population, with about 28% of the city being foreign-born as of last year, making immigrant rights a primary concern of the rally. “We demand an end to the attacks on Black, Brown, and Indigenous Americans, immigrants, transgender people, and other vulnerable communities, including—but not limited to—the immediate withdrawal of masked ICE agents and federal troops from American cities and towns,” states the Mass 50501 website. 

“We’ll need to take many more actions to protect our democracy going forward, but it does start with removal … making sure that we are protecting our immigrant community and their safety,” Bemis said. “ It really comes down to who gets to be a person in the United States and who gets to have a voice in our democracy.”

Some attendees said Trump has deviated from the U.S. Constitution with many of the policies he’s attempting to implement. From limiting access to reproductive healthcare and restricting gender-affirming medical care to cutting federal funding for public broadcasting, there is a palpable sense of opposition across the country.

“It’s not enough to sit home and just watch it on TV — you gotta get out and do something and be a voice of dissent, at least,” Patturson said. “We’re not giving up easily, and we’re never going away.”