Credit: AJC file photo
“Atlanta is where Rep. Lewis established the foundation, so after doing events in D.C., we felt it was only right to bring it home,” said Detria Austin Everson, CEO of the foundation. “It’s also where he began his 50-year political career. This is the community that supported him the most and continuously sent him to Washington to represent us.”
Everson said money raised at the event will go toward preserving the couple’s legacy through real, community-driven work. Specifically, funding will support grants, scholarships, democracy initiatives, voter outreach, civil rights efforts and youth development programs.
Thursday’s gala follows similar events held in Washington, D.C., in 2022 and 2024 and will take place at Flourish in Buckhead.
This year’s gala will honor two individuals whose lives, Everson said, reflect Lewis’ values of civil rights and public service: Lonnie G. Bunch III, the current secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; and Billye Suber Aaron, a trailblazing television host, co-founder of the Chasing the Dream Foundation, and widow of Hank Aaron.
Credit: Steve Schaefer
Aaron will receive the inaugural Lillian Miles Lewis Luminary Award, which is named after Lewis’ wife and honors someone who shares a lifelong commitment to education, the arts and civic engagement.
“Billye Aaron, with her trailblazing career in television, philanthropy and civic leadership, fits that perfectly,” Everson said.
Bunch, best known as the founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, will receive this year’s John Lewis Carry On Award. The honor was presented last year to U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
He will sit down for a fireside chat with Jason Carter, chairman of the Carter Center.
Credit: Rodolfo Gonzalez
“Having President Carter’s grandson interview the man who helped realize one of Rep. Lewis’ greatest dreams is a powerful moment of legacy and continuity,” Everson said.
Bunch and the Smithsonian have been under fire since April, when President Donald Trump issued an executive order aimed at the Smithsonian Institution, the nation’s massive museum system, in an effort to tighten his grip on cultural and artistic institutions by attacking what he calls “improper ideology.”
Lewis played a critical and foundational role — both legislatively and symbolically — in the creation of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. In 1988, long before there was widespread support, he introduced legislation to create a national museum dedicated to African American history and culture.
He later cosponsored the legislation that finally passed in 2003. When the museum opened in 2016, Lewis was a featured speaker at the dedication ceremony, alongside President Barack Obama.
“This museum is a testament to the dignity of the dispossessed in every corner of the globe who yearn for freedom,” Lewis said in his speech. “All the voices roaming, for centuries, have finally found a home here in this great monument to our pain, our suffering, and our victory.”
The gala will also highlight community leadership by announcing five recipients of the Good Troublemaker Neighborhood Grants, awarded to local community-based organizations, and 13 students from Georgia’s 5th Congressional District who will each receive a $1,000 Good Troublemaker Scholarship.
“What Rep. Lewis did best was bring people together around a common cause,” Everson said. “The Good Trouble Gala is not just a fundraiser; it’s a powerful testament to the enduring commitment to the principles and values that he championed.”
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