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Who really said it

Get in good trouble, necessary trouble

Spoken & written by John Lewis 1940–2020 · U.S. congressman & civil rights leader
Verified In copyright

This is one of the rare cases where the famous name really said it. “Good trouble” was John Lewis’s lifelong catchphrase, and the pairing “good trouble, necessary trouble” appears verbatim in his 27 June 2018 tweet and in his final essay, published in The New York Times on the day of his funeral, 30 July 2020.

Last verified 16 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble” — John Lewis, "Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation," The New York Times, July 30, 2020

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Estate of John Lewis; The New York Times Company (essay)). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

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In context

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Provenance

Where it comes from

Author
John Lewis (1940–2020)
Essay
“Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation”
Published
The New York Times, 30 July 2020 (written before his death on 17 July 2020)
Also in
Tweet, 27 June 2018 (#goodtrouble)

Ordinary people with extraordinary vision can redeem the soul of America by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble. Voting and participating in the democratic process are key.

From Lewis’s posthumously published essay. In his 2018 tweet the phrase appears in the imperative form the slogan is drawn from: “Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”

John Lewis, “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation” (primary-source packet)

How we traced it

  • Wikiquote sources the wording to Lewis’s June 2018 tweet, quoted in USA Today’s 18 July 2020 tribute headline “‘Get in good trouble, necessary trouble.’”
  • The Bill of Rights Institute primary-source packet reproduces the New York Times essay verbatim, including “getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble.”
  • Lewis traced “good trouble” to his youth: told by elders not to get into trouble, he chose to make “good trouble, necessary trouble” instead — a phrase he used across decades of speeches and interviews.
In copyright

The wording is drawn from work first published in 2018 (tweet) and 2020 (the New York Times essay), so it is in copyright in the United States. The three-word slogan on its own is likely too short to be independently protectable, but the sentences it comes from belong to Lewis’s estate and his publisher.

Fact-check

Genuine — but often condensed

Unlike most feel-good lines pinned on famous names, this one is authentic. The main thing to get right is the wording and where the neat slogan comes from.

A condensation of Lewis’s own longer sentences mis-worded

Lewis’s documented lines are “get in good trouble, necessary trouble” (within his 2018 tweet) and “getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble” (2020 essay). The clipped three-word imperative was popularized as the title of the 2020 documentary and the USA Today tribute headline.

No one speech

Lewis did not coin the phrase in one famous address; he used “good trouble” across decades, tracing it to childhood elders who warned him not to get into trouble.

The words are authentically John Lewis’s — a phrase he used for decades and placed in his final essay, published the day of his funeral in The New York Times.

Context

Why it mattered

For John Lewis, “good trouble” distilled a lifetime of nonviolent direct action — sit-ins, Freedom Rides, and the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge — into a permission slip for ordinary people to break unjust rules on purpose.

He returned to the phrase constantly in his final years, and chose to close his life with it: his farewell essay urges the next generation to redeem the nation “by getting in what I call good trouble, necessary trouble.”

Get in good trouble, necessary trouble.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Courage Justice

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

John Lewis — Wikiquoteen.wikiquote.org

Sourced quotations, including the 2018 tweet and 2020 essay carrying the phrase.
Lewis's original 2018 tweetx.com

The 27 June 2018 #goodtrouble tweet where the imperative wording appears.
“Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation” (essay packet)bri-docs.s3.amazonaws.com

Verbatim reproduction of Lewis's final New York Times essay, with the phrase.
John Lewis and Good Troubleamericanhistory.si.edu

Smithsonian National Museum of American History on the phrase and its meaning.
Five things John Lewis taught us about “good trouble”brookings.edu

Brookings context on Lewis's use of the phrase across his career.

The true author

About John Lewis

John Lewis

1940–2020 · U.S. congressman & civil rights leader

John Robert Lewis was an American civil rights leader and politician who chaired SNCC, spoke at the 1963 March on Washington, and was beaten leading the 1965 Selma march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. He represented Georgia in Congress from 1987 until his death in 2020, and made “good trouble, necessary trouble” his enduring call to nonviolent activism.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Lewis, John. “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation.” The New York Times, July 30, 2020. Earlier form in Lewis’s tweet of June 27, 2018.

MLA (9th ed.)

Lewis, John. "Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation." The New York Times, 30 July 2020.

APA (7th ed.)

Lewis, J. (2020, July 30). Together, you can redeem the soul of our nation. The New York Times.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Get in good trouble, necessary trouble’?” Last verified 16 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/get-in-good-trouble-necessary-trouble

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