Featured Speaker - Dr. C. T. Vivian
Since his teenage years, Dr. Vivian's life has been dedicated to the elimination of racism. Growing up in a deeply religious household in a heavily white community, the idea of racism was intellectually and spiritually untenable to him. Using non-violent direct action techniques, he opened segregated lunch counters and restaurants in Peoria, Illinois and Greensboro, N.C. ten years before the famous efforts in Montgomery, Alabama. When C.O.R.E. ended the Freedom Rides, the Nashville group picked it up. That allowed the entry of S.C.L.C. They took the rides on to Jackson, Mississippi, and became the first group of ministers and students to be arrested for actively ending racism in this hemisphere. After being beaten in Parchman Prison, he brought the federal government into action against the abuses in the Mississippi prison system. Martin Luther King, Jr. called the Nashville Movement the most perfect non-violent Movement in the nation. While pastoring in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Dr. Vivian's youngest son, Al (who later became a Morehouse graduate), was born in a segregated hospital at Christmas time. He used this situation to end segregation in city hospitals. Soon afterward, at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s request, Dr. Vivian organized the state of Tennessee for the March on Washington. Immediately following that, Dr. King invited Dr. Vivian to join his personal executive staff as National Director of Affiliates. In that capacity, Dr. Vivian became consultant to all S.C.L.C. organizations on voter registration, education, consumer actions, non-violent training, direct action, human relations, and community development projects. Dr. Vivian served with Dr. King in Albany, Georgia; Birmingham, Alabama; Selma, Alabama; the March on Washington; Danville, Virginia; and St. Augustine, Florida. During the summer following the Selma Movement, he conceived and directed an educational program, Vision, and put 702 Alabama students in college with scholarships. The program later became Upward Bound. While in Chicago, he organized and directed the Coalition for United Community Action. The group of 61 organizations became Chicago's Black Front. They organized teen gangs and gained 20,000 training slots for Black and Latino youth in the 16 building trades unions, and created the Chicago Plan. It became the model for other cities. The legislation that governed relations between the trades and minority communities was changed in the nation. In 1972, Dr. Vivian became Dean of the Chapel at Shaw University, Dean of Alternative Education and National Director of the Seminary Without Walls. During his time there, he spent one year as Director, Asia Desk and Community Organization for the National Council of Churches, Division of Overseas Ministries, Agricultural Missions. Dr. Vivian also organized two national organizations. The first was the Center for Democratic Renewal, the group that researches the far right, and discovered the church burning conspiracy. Two years ago, after being placed on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights Education, he organized the National Center for Human Rights Education during the Decade of Human Rights Education. Dr. Vivian was the first one of Dr. King's staff to write a book analysis of the Civil Rights Movement. His book, Black Power and the American Myth, has become an Ebony Book Club Selection. Dr. Vivian's energy and activism continues today! Dr. Vivian is featured in the following American museums:  |
