[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 20540]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              HONORING THE REV. DR. C.T. VIVIAN OF ATLANTA

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JOHN LEWIS

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 31, 2009

  Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Madam Speaker, today I rise to honor a warrior 
for civil rights and social justice, a veteran of the modern-day Civil 
Rights Movement, a resident of the 5th Congressional District, and a 
friend. In a few days, we in Georgia will be honoring the life of the 
Reverend Dr. Cordy Tindell Vivian, better known as C.T. Vivian, who 
will turn 85 years old on July 30, 2009.
  Born in 1924, Vivian grew up in Macomb, Illinois and was raised by 
his mother and grandmother. Even though Illinois was not segregated by 
law, C.T. Vivian was keenly aware that the customs and traditions of 
racism and discrimination pervaded his life. As a young man Vivian 
wanted to find a way to make an impact on society, so after leaving 
college he began working with youth at Carver Community Center in 
Peoria, Illinois. As a young man deeply influenced by the church and 
the visionary faith of his grandmother and mother, Vivian recognized 
the power of nonviolence as a tool for social change. He joined a 
successful non-violent movement in Peoria in 1947 to integrate 
restaurants in the city, which brought down barriers in all public 
eating establishments throughout the city.
  In 1955, C.T. Vivian was called to the ministry and enrolled in what 
would some years later become my alma mater, American Baptist 
Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee. That same year, he began 
working with a new subdivision of Martin Luther King Jr.'s organization 
established by the Rev. Kelly Miller Smith called the Nashville 
Christian Leadership Conference. The NCLC began training Nashville 
college students in the discipline and philosophy of non-violence and 
was involved in organizing the first student sit-ins and marches in the 
city in 1960.
  Vivian's experiences in Peoria helped provide leadership for student 
organizers in Nashville, and in 1961, he joined the Freedom Rides, 
after the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) had suspended their 
efforts. One bus had been set on fire in Anniston, Alabama. Freedom 
Riders had been surrounded by an angry mob in a church in Montgomery, 
Alabama. Attorney General Robert Kennedy had called in the National 
Guard to protect riders traveling from Montgomery to Jackson, 
Mississippi. CORE suspended its efforts to test the desegregation of 
interstate transportation. In spite of these dangers, Vivian joined a 
new attempt to renew the rides on a bus trip from Nashville to Jackson. 
Martin Luther King Jr. asked Vivian to join the executive staff of his 
organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He worked 
with SCLC campaigns in St. Augustine, Florida; Danville, Virginia; and 
Chicago, Illinois. Vivian was in Birmingham in 1963, participated in 
the Mississippi Freedom Summer Project in 1964 and came to Selma in 
1965.
  In Selma, he worked with the voter registration efforts that the 
Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee already had in progress, and 
would serve as a lead protestor, persistently confronting Sheriff Jim 
Clark on the steps of the Selma, Alabama courthouse at the head of a 
band of non-violent marchers seeking to register and vote. He was 
arrested and jailed in Selma several times.
  In February 1965, Vivian was a speaker at a non-violent, peaceful 
night-time rally meant to support protestors jailed in Marion, Alabama. 
The marchers were ambushed by a violent posse who killed military 
veteran and Marion native Jimmie Lee Jackson. Efforts to commemorate 
Jackson's death ultimately became the historic Selma to Montgomery 
march which culminated in the passage of the Voting Rights Act. The act 
opened up more free and fair access to the ballot box for all African 
Americans, as well as other Americans of color, and it resulted in the 
election of literally thousands of black elected officials in 
subsequent years, including the first African American president of the 
United States, Barack Obama.
  Following the death of Martin Luther King Jr., Vivian formed an 
organization dedicated to the training of African American youth called 
Vision, which ultimately became known as Upward Bound, an educational 
program that provides college students with scholarships. After working 
with SCLC, Vivian organized campaigns against racism and advocated for 
racial justice. He has worked to found other organizations, including 
the Black Action Strategies and Information Center, the Center for 
Democratic Renewal, and the C.T. Vivian Leadership Institute, all based 
in Atlanta. In 2008 he led the Yes We Care campaign, which contributed 
over $500,000 to Morris Brown University, a fiscally challenged 
historically black university in the city. He is the author of Black 
Power and the American Myth.
  The Rev. Dr. C.T. Vivian has served as an inspiring leader, an 
electrifying minister, and a force for good in our society. As a 
participant in the modem-day Civil Rights Movement, he successfully 
implemented the discipline and philosophy of non-violent social 
resistance that helped to transform America forever. For this role, 
C.T. Vivian must be seen as one of the authors of a new chapter in 
American history that hastens the advent of a society based on simple 
justice that values the dignity and the worth of every human being, or 
the Beloved Community. For his eloquence, insight, vision, persistence, 
determination and courage, we commemorate the service of C.T. Vivian on 
his 85th birthday.

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