HOUSTON, TX — A 20-second video may seem small, but history has never measured courage by the clock.

The Houston Area Urban League is calling on Greater Houston to turn smartphones into instruments of civic purpose through its “I’m Getting Into Good Trouble” Video Challenge, a community-wide digital campaign honoring the enduring legacy of Congressman John Lewis.

 

The challenge leads into the national Good Trouble Lives On Weekend of Action, July 17–19, 2026, when communities across America will promote voting-rights awareness, civic education and peaceful, nonpartisan participation. The national initiative is built around three energetic words—Teach, Reach and Preach—and emphasizes lawful, nonviolent action rather than support for any candidate or ballot measure.

To participate, Houstonians should record a 10- to 20-second vertical video beginning:

“I’m [Your Name], and I’m getting into Good Trouble with the Houston Area Urban League…”

Participants can then explain why voting rights, informed citizenship, neighborhood involvement or community leadership matter to them. Videos must be emailed to events@haul.org by July 14. Selected submissions will appear across HAUL’s Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X platforms throughout Good Trouble Weekend, united by the hashtag #GoodTroubleLivesOn.

That is democracy with good lighting—and preferably no shaky camera.

The challenge is especially fitting in Houston, a city built by people who understand that progress rarely arrives with its sleeves clean. Founded in 1968, the Houston Area Urban League has spent more than five decades expanding opportunity through workforce development, housing, education, entrepreneurship, health programs and civil-rights advocacy. In 2021, HAUL deepened that work by opening its Center for Social Justice & Education, creating a year-round home for civic engagement, advocacy, literacy and public education.

“Congressman John Lewis taught us that democracy is not something we inherit, it is something we must actively protect,” said Judson W. Robinson III, HAUL President and CEO. Robinson has led the organization since 2008, carrying forward a Houston tradition of service that connects economic opportunity with civic power.

Lewis understood that connection better than most. Born to Alabama sharecroppers in 1940, he became chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, participated in the Freedom Rides and helped organize the 1963 March on Washington.

On March 7, 1965—Bloody Sunday—Lewis and fellow marchers were assaulted by Alabama state troopers while crossing Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge to demand voting rights. The televised violence helped build national momentum for passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Lewis later served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1987 until his death on July 17, 2020. Yet even after more than three decades in Congress, he never traded movement for monument. He continued urging Americans to speak up, organize peacefully and create what he famously called “good trouble”—necessary trouble in the service of justice.

HAUL’s challenge brings that history directly into the digital age. No bus ticket to Selma is required. No podium is necessary. A student, pastor, business owner, neighborhood leader, retiree or first-time voter can use a phone, a clear message and a few honest seconds to remind others that citizenship is a verb.

Houston residents are encouraged to learn about voting requirements, verify their voter registration, encourage relatives and neighbors to become informed and discuss civic issues respectfully. Most importantly, the challenge asks people to see themselves not as spectators of democracy, but as its daily caretakers.

Good trouble does not always begin on a bridge. Sometimes, it begins in portrait mode.

Video submissions: events@haul.org
Media inquiries: khodges@haul.org
Social media: @HouUrbanLeague