SCLC National Magazine - King 2023 Issue

“Make a career of humanity.”

— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., March for Integrated Schools, April 18, 1959

We honor and celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by cultivating diversity and inclusion at every level of the workplace at Farmers Insurance® . Diverse perspectives and experiences are welcomed and respected, because our differences are what make us stronger. Together, we enhance the collective experience for all.

9 Dr. Charles Steele Presidents Corner

12 Mrs. Steele From The First Lady

18 Bernard LaFayette: Ambassador for Non violence

By:Ambassador Andrew Young

21 The Gift of friendship

By Jane Osgerby

23 The Lasting Legacy: Dr. Bernard LaFayette’s Imprint on my life

By Nikhil Raghuveera

31No Greater Love… Thank You For Being A Friend! A Special Tribute to A True Servant Leader, Dr. Bernard LaFayette Jr.

By Omar Neal

33 Tribute to LaFayette

By Prof Marilyn Ford

40 Dr. LaFayette Selma 2.0 Charge

By Ainka Sanders

44 Making History: Preserving the Legacy of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

By Autumn

Smith

47 Ripples from the Past

By James LaFayette Jr

Dr. Charles Steele, Jr. President & CEO

Martin Luther King Jr. Founding President

Ralph D. Abernathy President 1968 - 1977

Joseph E. Lowery President 1977 - 1997

Martin Luther King III President 1998 - 2003

Dr. Bernard LaFayette, Jr Chairman

Fred L. Shuttlesworth President 2004

Dr. Charles Steele, Jr. President & CEO

Howard Creecy Jr. President 2011

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King 2023.indd 7 12/28/22 7:13 PM

PRESIDENT’S CORNER

Dr. Bernard LaFayette, Jr.: A Friend of the Civil Rights Movement, and a Friend of Mine.

By Dr. Charles Steele Jr., SCLC National President & CEO

When asked to write about my friend, colleague, and Chairman of the Board of SCLC, I knew I was given a special opportunity to share with the world my friendship with Dr. Bernard LaFayette, Jr. The Bible says, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friend’s – John 15: 12-13. This Bible verse speaks volumes to me when thinking about Dr. LaFayette. It speaks to the person he is, what he means to the civil rights movement and what the movement means to him.

Dr. LaFayette became active in the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. He worked alongside great leaders such as our beloved co-founder Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He is known for his work in organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). I would say the most paramount thoughts that come to mind about my friend is his unselfish way of living. Dr. LaFayette worked in civil rights when it was a fameless, unpopular, and dangerous time. He put his life on the line every single day that he protested, stood up against racism and hatred, spoke out and marched. Dr. LaFayette showed his courage, strength, and love of his brethren every time he volunteered during the movement not knowing if he would live to see another day. His mission was simple, he wanted to help ensure a better tomorrow for all God’s children

In May 1961, Dr. LaFayette volunteered as a Freedom Rider. The Freedom Riders were a group of Black and white volunteers that gave of their time to ride together in the segregated South. Again, Dr. LaFayette understood that he was putting his life in jeopardy, but he did so to help bring change in the South. Once arriving in Montgomery, Alabama, Dr. LaFayette and his fellow riders were not surprised when they were met by members of Ku Klux Klan, and were savagely attacked.

The Freedom Riders were called names, taunted, and beaten. Dr. LaFayette stood strong and was nearly killed. He has been arrested and beaten during his time in the civil rights movement and as a soldier fighting for justice.

I first met Dr. Bernard LaFayette, Jr. 35 years ago at Mount Olive Baptist church in Anniston, Alabama where our friend Rev. John Nettles was the pastor at that time. I remember meeting Dr. LaFayette and thinking what an honor it was to meet such a selfless person in the movement whom I had heard many stories about. Sometimes you meet people and their reputations proceeds them, but the meeting of that person does not match the stories. However, this was not the case for Dr. LaFayette, he was and still is one of the humblest people you will ever meet. After meeting him we became good friends with similar synergy. With the trust of Dr. LaFayette as a leader it encourages me to continuously fight for the existence of an organization such as SCLC that has helped bring about many of our freedoms we enjoy today. Because of his support and leadership, I became the only SCLC president to serve twice as president and CEO. It is an honor to work with and recognize the impact and influence that he has on many nations as we travel the world with his teachings of the Kingian philosophy on conflict reconciliations. Dr. LaFayette’s teachings continues to transform the world and bring people together under the helm of SCLC.

Most recently, he was recognized with a street named after him because of his bravery and insight in Selma, Alabama in 1963. He organized with other local leaders and lived in Selma for two years in order to bring about the infrastructure of the voter registration movement that led to the 1965 Voter’s Right Act. This well-deserved recognition is a testament to his bravery and unselfish commitment to bringing about change wherever injustice exist.

Dr. LaFayette is the epitome of Dr. King’s words when he said, “We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always right to do right.” Dr. LaFayette constantly reminds me on a regular basis when SCLC is fighting for justice and equality that we are making history for people to stand and move forward into the future with sustainability. He is and will always be a friend to the civil rights movement and a friend of mine.

FROM THE FIRST LADY

A Hero for Humanity

By Mrs. Cathelean Steele, Founder, Justice for Girls

I met Mamie Till Mobley in 1993 when she traveled to Tuscaloosa Alabama to visit my husband and myself. This first visit cemented our friendship. Mrs. Mobley spoke to my history classes and detailed the death of her son, Emmett Till. My students were in shock to learn that a young boy could be so brutally murdered.

Mamie shared with my husband and I many small but important details about Emmett. When I learned that there would be a movie depicting his death, I decided to share some of those details in this article.

Emmett was born with a speech problem which made him stutter when he tried to pronounce words. In her words “Emmett when you try to pronounce a word and can’t, stop and whistle.” Mamie believed for years that Emmett had taken the advice that he had been taught and whistled when he was telling Carolyn Bryant that he wanted to buy some bubble gum.

Mamie shared with us that she cried when Emmett left for Money Mississippi because she knew the danger if you disobeyed the customs set for Blacks in the South. Her worst nightmare happened on that Wednesday when her Uncle Mose, who was a minister, took the boys to church. Mamie shared with us that the boys slipped out of church and went to the store to buy candy.

The story of what happened changed depending on who was telling it. Mamie’s belief was that after Emmett purchased the gum, one of the boys asked him what did you buy and when he could not get the words out, he whistled just as he had been taught.

What happened after that haunted Mamie. She shared with us a quote that appeared in the August 1995 issue of Emerge magazine. “I have pictured Emmett being in that barn and those people relentlessly beating him. I just wonder how long did he suffer? I hope in my heart that it wasn’t long. Yet, I heard Willie Reed testify Emmett was in the barn from daybreak until up in the day, maybe 1

O’clock. He said they beat Emmett until finally they didn’t hear more sounds coming from him.”

One afternoon while Mamie was visiting us in Tuscaloosa she shared another story that still haunts me to this day. Maurice Wright, the oldest of the cousins, told her on his death bed that “Bo just won’t let me alone.” Mamie learned that Maurice Wright was given 50 cents to tell Roy Bryant that Emmett told his wife she was a good-looking woman.

Mamie believed that jealousy played a role in Emmett’s death. I miss you my friend and I will continue to share your role in the civil rights movement. The courage to share with the world what happened to Emmett opened eyes around the world.

An unprecedented human rights crisis is unfolding in Zimbabwe. Why isn’t anybody talking about it?

By: Kevin Kimble

Zimbabwe’s ZANU-PF government has been using state-sanctioned violence to crush political dissent for decades. Now, under the leadership of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, countless lawmakers, civilian activists, and their families have been subjected to harassment, arbitrary arrest, imprisonment, kidnapping, torture, and sexual violence. In a period of just 6 days between 27 July 2020 and 1 August 2020, at least 70 opposition party members and civilian activists were arrested, jailed, abducted or tortured by the Zimbabwean authorities and individuals connected to ZANU PF. Recently, the Zimbabwean Member of Parliament, Hon. Jasmin Toffa was brutally attacked by a group of ZANU-PF supporters who broke both of her hands.

At this very moment, as many as one hundred members of opposition parties are facing criminal charges. These cases will be heard in specialized political courts by judges who are under the control of government ministers – a fact recently revealed in an open letter penned by a courageous group of Zimbabwean magistrates.

Two Members of the Zimbabwean Parliament, Hon. Job Sikhala and Hon. Godfrey Sithole will soon face trial for speaking out against ZANU-PF. Even though neither one has ever been convicted of a crime, both lawmakers were denied bail and jailed under inhuman conditions at the notorious Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare. Mr. Sikhala has not been released since his arrest on 14 June 2022. He is shackled with leg irons every day and sleeps on a concrete floor arm-to-arm with dozens of convicted violent inmates.

This continued repression of Zimbabwean citizens and subversion of social justice must be addressed before Presidential elections are held in Zimbabwe next year. It is time remind our elected representatives of the billions of dollars in foreign aid the US has provided to Zimbabwe. In the words of Dr. King, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Mr. Kimble is a 25-year veteran of Capital Hill and has held positions as chief of staff for a senior member of congress and chief lobbyist for one of the nation's largest fi nancial services fi rms. As current D.C. Bureau Chief for the national chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Kevin has unparalleled access to minority communities and civic leaders around the country. He is routinely called upon and advises members of congress on policy and legislative issues and has been asked to speak to state and local government and testify at hearings.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a Power Mover. His legacy empowers generations. Yet he knew true change could not happen alone. He inspired others to move – like Bernard LaFayette Jr., who marched alongside King for a just and equitable world. LaFayette, like King, believes our best days were ahead of us. Today, we celebrate the power that inspires us all to move toward a better tomorrow. Move like LaFayette. Move like King.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference proudly celebrates and shares perspective on the life and accomplishments of Dr. Bernard LaFayette Jr.

We would also like to acknowledge “When I Get Grown- Reflections of Freedom Rider” for winning Best Short documentary at the Harlem International Film Festival. This Film focused on Dr. LaFayette’s Work.

Bernard LaFayette Ambassador for Nonviolence

By: Ambassador Andrew Young

Bernard LaFayette was among the students in Nashville that inspired me and my wife Jean to return South and become a part of the civil rights struggle. We were in our living room in Queens, New York when NBC broadcast the “Nashville Sit-in Story.” It told the story of the courageous students who maintained their posture of nonviolence despite provocation from segregationists. The sit-ins were.a direct, non-violent confrontation with segregation, the students in Nashville virtually perfected desegregation efforts. It was a well-balanced movement that included demonstrations, boycotts, mass marches and negotiations with the White business community. It was the most comprehensive of all the sit-ins, and its leaders- Bernard, John Lewis, Diane Nash, C.T. Vivian—went on to be essential contributors to movements for the following decade and beyond.

Bernard was a major contributor to the Freedom Rides. Beaten in Alabama, he went on to Mississippi and was arrested in Jackson. He was sent to Parchman Prison in Mississippi with cracked ribs. Never complaining—bearing the pain in the struggle for freedom.

In Selma, Bernard was among those who went in to work with Amelia Boynton and the Dallas County Voters Leagues- in 1962- years before the the world turned its eyes to Selma. For his community organizing efforts-he was targeted and attacked by a white segregationist on the same night Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi. He survived the attack because he would not flinch or run—and a neighbor trained a gun on his attacker. Nevertheless, he helped lay the foundation for what became the Selma to Montgomery March for Voting Rights that resulted in the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Bernard has always been creative in his approach to nonviolence. In the Chicago Movement he was part of a team that organized rent strikes and then applied for HUD grants to buy the buildings for the tenants. It was an effective and strategic use of nonviolence and the resources of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society Programs.

Martin hired Bernard as SCLC’s program coordinator in 1967. I one of the most difficult times of the Movement– LaFayette took on responsibility for the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. Martin King’s assassination. The Campaign laid the foundation for many improvements to America’s approach to poverty- free food stamps; the refundable earned income tax credit, child allowances.

Bernard went on to Harvard and I went to Congress and the United Nations. Bernard received his MEd from Harvard University in 1972 and a doctorate in 1974. He served as a scholar in residence at the King Center. After teaching at several universities, he came full circle– back to Nashville- and was named president of his alma mater, American Baptist Theological Seminary, in 1993. He later became the director of the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies at the University of Rhode Island.

For many years, Bernard has travelled the globe– an Ambassador for Creative Nonviolence.

Bernard has always kept the faith. He has always maintained his belief in the power of creative nonviolence. He has risked his life and dedicated his life to the cause of non-violent social change. Our world is a better place—because of the service and commitment of Bernard LaFayette

Rev. Andrew Young is revered worldwide. He is former United Nations Ambassador, Atlanta Mayor and top SCLC aide to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He is one of four SCLC staffers to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award.

THE ONLY THING MORE IMPORTANT THAN STARTING THE CONVERSATION IS KEEPING IT GOING.

We honor the men and women who began the dialog for social, economic and political justice through our commitment to help continue it.

The Gift of Friendship

By:Jane Osgerby

When I think about special “gifts” I have received, my friendship with Rev. Dr. Bernard LaFayette, Jr. and his wife, Kate Bulls LaFayette comes to mind. I have been privileged to know them for thirtytwo wonderful years. I am a 78 year old white female from Tullahoma, TN, and of course I grew up accustomed to the “southern” way of life. At the age of 15, I watched the sit-in movement unfold in nearby Nashville, followed by the Freedom Rides. Keeping up with the events on television actually changed my way of thinking and continue to give me hope for the future. In 1990, I met Dr. LaFayette and his family.

What can one say about a man who worked with and for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? A real hero, educator, and minister who has lived his whole life successfully carrying out Dr. King’s mandate to him? A man known all over the world for his courage and leadership, who has been honored with so many major tributes?

Many people know that Dr. King’s last words to Dr. LaFayette, in Memphis, 1968, directed him to “institutionalize and internationalize” nonviolence. But how many know that he is still, to this day, on a mission to carry out that mandate? There is not space in this publication to enumerate all his work in that direction, so I will attempt to highlight a few of them.

Working through the King Center in Atlanta and USAID, Dr. LaFayette oversaw the “training of trainers” in South Africa in the early 1990s that led to major positive change. He worked with leaders of FEHN (The Foundation for. Ethnic Harmony in Nigeria) between 2007 to 2018 to train and transform over 30,000 Niger Delta ex-militants. Between 2000 and 2017, Dr. LaFayette led trainings in Medellin, Colombia, South America, for thousands, including inmates at major prisons which reduced killings, to name just a few of his accomplishments. Meanwhile, he established King Centers across the United States, and set up on-going departments at the University of Rhode Island, Emory University in Atlanta, and currently at Auburn University in Alabama where Kingian Nonviolence is taught.

These major accomplishments are easy to read about, and I strongly suggest that you do. Our friendship has enabled me to know another side of this magnificent man. I see Bernard and Kate as a unit even if they are on opposite sides of the world. They are so supportive of each other and so in love that after over fifty years of marriage, they still set the standard for a perfect relationship. I have met their wonderful families and watched with awe as they provide care and love and support for all of them.

Kate had her own career as an educator and specialist on Early Childhood Development. As a young college student, she participated in campaigns to win voting rights for African American citizens while home during breaks from Tufts University. She worked alongside her husband at the Poor People’s Campaign, setting up facilities for child care for the people who attended the march. For 24 years, Kate was Director of Head Start in her hometown of Tuskegee.

So, how could Jane from Tullahoma be involved in building playground equipment in South Florida in August, 1993? To assist Dr. LaFayette and Mrs. Coretta Scott King who had together raised the money, a year after Hurricane Andrew’s devastation. This involved felony offenders from Tennessee

doing the carpentry work while being assisted by students from American Baptist College. And, we lived in an Army barracks tent in a camp set up by Rev. Franklin Graham on the edge of the Everglades! This resulted in children in three areas having something fun to occupy their time while waiting for their homes to be rebuilt. Since I was employed by the state of Tennessee, this arrangement was a great fit.

I could tell you about traveling to Haiti in the late 1990s on a fact-finding mission for implementing Kingian Nonviolence training there. I must admit being a bit taken aback when interviewing a Voudou Priest! I hosted Pete and Toshi Seeger in Nashville when I was chairperson of a benefit concert by Pete to raise funds for Dr. LaFayette’s program, “The Godfathers.” I spent every Tuesday evening at Progressive Baptist Church helping to feed and provide activities for the children involved.

I can honestly state that knowing Bernard and Kate LaFayette has changed my life for the better in enough ways to fill a whole book. They are much more like family than friends, and I cherish every moment I am blessed to spend with them.

“We’re going to have to decide for ourselves what we are and what we’re not. Create our own image of ourselves. And nurture it and feed it till it can stand on its own.”

- Sidney Poitier

Lasting Legacy: Dr. Bernard LaFayette’s Imprint On My Life

By: Nikhil Raghuveera, Head of Strategy & Innovation at the Celo Foundation

I work at the intersection of technology and financial inclusion with a vision to reimagine finance for historically marginalized communities excluded from traditional institutions. This work affords me the opportunity to collaborate with nonprofits here in the United States, as well as internationally in places such as Kenya, Brazil, and the Philippines to design solutions around community commerce and payments. Often, people ask me how I arrived at such a unique professional space and what inspires my dedication to social impact. A large influence comes from Dr. Bernard LaFayette, Jr., a civil and human right icon, whose voice drives my personal and professional purpose of creating a more equitable world for future generations.

A Legacy of Education

I first met Dr. LaFayette during my sophomore year at Emory University in 2012. He had graciously agreed to speak at an upcoming conference that I was helping organize. His 20 minute talk on the philosophy of nonviolence left an indelible impression.

Dr. LaFayette was a difficult person to reach by email, but thankfully I had his phone number. That summer several months later, I gave him a call to ask if I could take an independent class on the philosophy of nonviolence. I was nervous, expecting him to say no because I imagined he was too busy to have time to meet with an undergraduate student. Dr. LaFayette was undoubtedly busy—I called him while he was facilitating a nonviolence workshop in South Africa. But to my delight, he said he’d love to have me as a student for an 1:1 independent study. This class began a journey that continues to this day, and exemplifies Dr. LaFayette’s commitment to educating future generations.

My junior and senior year curriculum became inextricably tied to coursework with Dr. LaFayette. Weekly 45 minute sessions turned into 1.5 to 2 hour discussions regarding his experiences in the civil rights movement, comparisons to the Arab Spring movement, political theory, Malcom X, the Black Panther Party, affirmative action, and a myriad of other topics. Dr. LaFayette is a unique teacher. He lets the other person talk first and structure the conversation. For someone who possesses such lived experiences and academic knowledge, it is a profound level of humility and genuine care. Nonviolence philosophy would call this agape, the highest form of love, and which Martin Luther King describes “the love of God operating in the human heart.”

My academic focus evolved to center on social justice issues, the intersection of violence and nonviolence, and political change. This culminated in my senior year when, following my thesis defense, Dr. LaFayette asked if I would like to serve on the Board of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Taken aback. I couldn’t help but ask Dr. LaFayette why me, a recent college graduate with

only academic experience. His response remains in my mind: “we all were in our 20s when we joined the Movement.” It was an opportunity to turn academic experience into tangible action—a relationship Dr. LaFayette personifies from his studies at Harvard to his leadership in the civil rights movement. In the meantime, I also started my professional career at an economic consulting firm in the litigation space in Boston, an industry different from anything related to social justice or civil rights. Perhaps it was intentional, but by bringing me into the SCLC Dr. LaFayette grounded my entire professional experience. He helped ensure that I remained committed to and engaged on the most pressing problems facing the United States.

My involvement with the SCLC meant that Dr. LaFayette remained a constant fixture in my life. We spoke regularly, often on economic inequality and Martin Luther King’s vision for the Poor People’s Campaign. I found Dr. LaFayette’s decades of work and continued efforts to be inspiring. He is someone who is unwilling to rest on prior victories. Over time, I realized that economic consulting was simply not enough—real work needed to be done in the world. I applied to business and policy school with the hopes of transitioning my career into the social impact space. My application was filled with experiences that involved work with Dr. LaFayette, as well as a recommendation letter from him. I eventually attended The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the Harvard Kennedy School where I studied management theory, social justice movements, and technology for good with professors including Cornel West, Khalil Muhammad, and Erica Chenoweth. This academic experience both catapulted my work in the social impact space and further grounded Dr. LaFayette’s influence in my life. The result is now evident every day in my financial inclusion work.

Bending the Arc of the Moral Universe

During all of my experiences with Dr. LaFayette I never actually saw him outside a formal setting. It was always in a classroom or an event. In fall 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic just after completing graduate school, I finally visited him at his home in Tuskegee, Alabama. At the time, I worked at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a racial justice nonprofit in Montgomery. Every few weekends I would drive over—once or twice I even took lunch from Pannie-George’s Kitchen for us to all share as we sat outside. He, Mrs. LaFayette, I, and occasionally members of their family, would sit and reflect on the protests calling for racial justice, my work at EJI, the legacy of slavery in Tuskegee, and Dr. LaFayette’s ongoing work.

COVID-19 had put a pause on Dr. LaFayette’s travel so I expected him to be taking some time off. In fact, Dr. LaFayette was busier than I was at EJI. That fall, he conducted education sessions through Zoom, mentored a new crop of leaders, and engaged as much as possible. In all my time of knowing Dr. LaFayette I never saw him as tech savvy, but suddenly here he was reconfiguring his education efforts in a remote-first world. The Hamilton soundtrack by Lin Manuel Miranda was on my playlist at the time. I couldn’t help but think that the song “Non-Stop” was actually a portrayal of Dr. LaFayette.

Dr. King once said that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” In my last conversation with Bryan Stevenson, the Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, he touched

upon the fact that sometimes the moral universe needs a bit of a nudge. Dr. LaFayette is that nudge. His legacy is decades of tireless service advancing social justice both in the United States and abroad. For me personally, however, his legacy is also mentorship and education to carry forward his work. No one individual can replicate Dr. LaFayette’s level of impact on the world. But what I can do is look to him as a model as I seek to nudge the arc of the universe to one that is more

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“As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told us, "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." By standing together hand in hand, we can overcome the greatest of barriers.”

Dr. Bernard LaFayette Jr. – Friend and Support to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

By: Debbie Ellison

Dr. Bernard LaFayette Jr. has been protesting, marching, and strategizing for civil rights for more than half a century.

“You have to appreciate every opportunity you have to serve and to do your very best and to give it all that you have,” he says. “The thing that you want to do is appreciate the fact that time is a powerful force that will determine how long you’ll be able to give your contributions and what contributions you‘re going to make. Is it going to be to yourself or is it going to be to others? And will it make a difference?”

He has made it his mission in life to answer those questions. His life has been about contributing to others and making a difference.

As the current Chairman of the Board of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, co-founder and leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and Freedom Rider, he was an integral part of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s staff. Dr. King was his associate, mentor, and friend.

Dr. LaFayette is an expert on nonviolence. He says he learned about nonviolence from Dr. King, James Lawson, and from his own experience.

LaFayette and John Lewis were roommates in Nashville. Prior to the Supreme Court’s 1960 ruling in Boynton v. Virginia declaring segregation in interstate travel facilities unconstitutional, LaFayette and Lewis integrated a Greyhound interstate bus by sitting at the front and refusing to move.

He says, “The bus driver was very upset and he rammed his seat backwards, and it would have broken my legs had I not had my leather suitcase in front of me. But it punched a hole in my suitcase.”

He and John Lewis applied to go on the Freedom Rides. Lewis went, but since LaFayette was under twenty-one, he had to get his parent’s permission. His father would not give his permission and told him, “I’m not going to sign your death warrant.”

After the Freedom Rides were stopped because of violent opposition, he says “we asked CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality, if we could continue and they gave us approval. And so, we went.”

While in the bus station in Birmingham during one of the Freedom Rides, LaFayette says he was tired and went to sleep. He says Ku Klux Klansmen were all over the bus station, and one threw cold water in his face.

“In nonviolent training,” he explains, when you have an act of violence against you, you have to not imitate the violence that’s perpetrated against you, but you have to take an action in a way that will show your opponent that

there is a better way.

“So I smiled at him, and I said, ‘Thank you.’ He was shocked and confused because he threw cold water on me. One of the reasons I was thanking him is that I did not mean to be asleep in the room, so I appreciated him waking me up. He got the point.

“So you turn a negative into a positive by your response to violence. Then you give your opponent another option. People act because sometimes they don’t have any other options.”

In 1962, at age 22, he volunteered to become the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s director of its Alabama Voter Registration Project, running voter registration clinics in Selma, Alabama. When King launched SCLC’s Chicago Campaign, he appointed LaFayette to help plan and execute the campaign’s direct action program.

Dr. King hired him as SCLC’s program coordinator in 1967 and national coordinator of the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. He worked alongside Dr. King to organize the Selma-to-Montgomery marches and was instrumental in identifying Selma as the location for the voting rights movement that resulted in the signing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act and ultimately the 1968 Civil Rights Act. He marched with King from Selma to Montgomery, crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

He helped organize and participated in sit-ins at lunch counters in Nashville. “I met Martin Luther King in Nashville when he came to speak at Fisk University auditorium. This was after we had formed the Student Central Committee in Nashville and we had students from different colleges and universities, and we’re the ones that led the demonstrations that brought about the changes that took place in Nashville. This would have been 1960 or ‘61.”

In 1967, King hired LaFayette to be the program administrator over the programs of SCLC.

“Martin Luther King said that my job was to supervise Jesse Jackson and all of the staff over the programs. I supervised these people and a lot of them were older than I was. They accepted my position. Andrew Young was my supervisor.”

In 1968, King appointed him national coordinator of the Poor People’s Campaign, a campaign to gain economic justice for poor people in the United States.

On the night of April 3, 1968, when King made his Mountaintop speech, LaFayette was in Memphis with him to support Black sanitation workers who were striking for safer work conditions and better pay. They stayed at the Lorraine Motel. LaFayette recalls, “He didn’t want to go. He had sent Jesse Jackson and Andrew Young and Abernathy and all the other staff. It was pouring down rain. And I was in the room with Martin Luther King in room 306. We were working on a statement to announce the headquarters of the Poor People’s Campaign.

“When the staff got there, Martin Luther King was already in bed in his pajamas. He got a phone call from Abernathy saying that he was to come to a meeting. He said, ‘I’m exhausted.’

“Abernathy said, ‘These people want to hear from you.’ So, Martin Luther King said, ‘You mean, you want me to jump out of my bed, put on my clothes, come out there in all that rain? It’s raining cats

and dogs. Okay, if you say I should come.’” And he got up, put on his clothes, and left. I stayed at the motel and worked on the press statement.

“When he came back, he was enthusiastic. The next morning, I went back to his room. He was trying to recuperate. And when I was ready to leave, he said, ‘Wait, you go ahead and get things started, and I’ll be along later.’ I started out the door again and he said, ‘Our next movement is going to be to institutionalize and internationalize nonviolence.’ I didn’t know what he meant, but I said, ‘Okay.’”

“When I arrived at the airport in Washington DC, [D.C. city councilman] Walter Fauntroy was supposed to pick me up but he never arrived. I needed to find out the status of things so I called AP and UPI, United Press International, listened to their ticker tapes. So, that’s how I knew that Martin Luther King had died.”

“I didn’t make it to the funeral. I walked, and on my way to the church, I had to pass our office. People had broken in and were looting the place. The door was open and they were in there taking things out. They were in tears. Grown men were crying. I knew my role was to make sure they didn’t take all that stuff out of the office. And I had to do it in a nonviolent way, tell people without screaming at them.”

“So by the time I got to the funeral, they were bringing the body out.”

His advice to young activists “is to learn as much as possible from experiences that other people have had and to have an opportunity to put that into practice in training situations where you would have the opportunity to examine and explain it. There’s no substitute for the training. The question is, how do you interpret your experiences? Will you learn from your experiences?”

He has certainly learned from his. And these experiences, though many were challenging, sometimes life-threatening, has shaped his life and made him the great activist and leader he is today.

Debbie Ellison is the Executive Director of Global Humanitarians Unite.

No Greater Love… Thank You For Being A Friend! A Special Tribute to A True Servant Leader, Dr. Bernard LaFayette Jr.

By Omar Neal, President You Got The Power Enterprises, Inc., Former Mayor of Tuskegee, Alabama

John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.

You will seldom find me lacking for words to describe anything, I consider myself a wordsmith, someone who can at the drop of a hat speak eloquently on any subject. I am a public speaker, and a 31-year veteran talk radio personality who had the honor of serving as County Commissioner of Macon County, and Mayor of Tuskegee, Alabama. However, when it comes to expressing my feeling concerning my brother from another mother, I find my words woefully inadequate.

I met Dr. LaFayette in the mid-eighties on a rainy day in Tuskegee, Alabama. My sister Dr. Betty Neal Crutcher had met him earlier and called me to insist that I make a point to introduce myself to this wonderful person that she had recently encountered. I immediately recalled this powerful new Pastor of the Westminster Presbyterian Church that was nestled directly across the street from Tuskegee Institute High School. I later came to realize that I had recently encountered him in a town hall meeting where citizens were discussing issues impacting the community. I don’t recall exactly what the issues were, but I recall the citizens in an uproar, however, I distinctly remember this man who spoke that I did not know. You see, Tuskegee is a very small place and I thought I knew everyone in the entire city. Long story short, I was extremely impressed with his calm but powerful demeanor. He had the audience spellbound and the tone of the meeting turned from chaos to focused and solution-oriented in a manner of minutes. I knew then that he was no ordinary man but a transformational leader that arrived just in the nick of time to assist the Tuskegee community in moving forward. He eventually became the Principal of Tuskegee Institute High School while serving as pastor of the church across the street. He was fully vested in our community, and he was like manna from heaven.

What made his presence in Tuskegee additionally profound was that he was married to a native

daughter of Tuskegee, Kate Bull LaFayette who was born into one of the most prominent families in Tuskegee “The Bulls” best known for their entrepreneurial prowess. Kate’s Father Albert Bulls Sr. served as Dr. Booker T. Washington’s office boy. He was responsible for keeping the office clean and running errands for the first principal of Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, now Tuskegee University. Many of the homes and businesses in Tuskegee today were built by the Bulls Family enterprise. I now understand that much of what Kate saw as a child growing up in Tuskegee was enterprising people. It only stands to reason that she would choose as her life partner someone who possessed that same “go get it” attitude. I did not think about it until now, but isn’t it ironic or shall I say apropos that her life partner was from an education background and subsequently became the principal of the High School named Tuskegee Institute High?

I later came to discover that he had a long and significant role in the civil rights movement beginning in Nashville with the Sit-In Movement, Freedom Rides, Voters Registration Campaign in Selma, Alabama, and End The Slums, and Open Housing Movement in Chicago.

Dr. Martin Luther King later recruited Dr. LaFayette to head up the Poor People’s Campaign and to Supervise Program Staff for SCLC.

I remain in perpetual awe of Dr. LaFayette’s history, but it pales in comparison to the impact he has had on my life personally. From that rainy day encounter some 40 years ago, I could not have imagined that I would meet my best friend, the Preacher who married my wife Debbie and me twenty-six years ago. He and Kate serve as the Godparents to our one and only child, Omari Drenee’.

I would like to take this opportunity to so say Thank you for being a friend. There is a popular sitcom called Friends and the theme song best encapsulate my feelings for my dear brother and friend.

It is written by Andrew Gold. Thank you for being a friend Traveled down a road and back again Your heart is true, you’re a pal and a confidant I’m not ashamed to say I hope it always will stay this way My hat is off, won’t you stand up and take a bow And if you threw a party Invited everyone you knew Well, you would see the biggest gift would be from me And the card attached would say Thank you for being a friend.

A Tribute to Dr. LaFayette

By: Marilyn Ford, Professor of Law Quinnipiac University

Dr. Bernard LaFayette, Jr. (Dr. LaFayette) is one of my dearest friends and mentors. I have known him for over 50 years. We met shortly after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (King) when Dr. LaFayette was still mourning the death of Dr. King while also continuing the last assignments that Dr. King had given him.

Over the years, I have watched Dr. LaFayette fulfill those assignments and provide extraordinary service as a civil rights activist, organizer, and leader on the front line. Because of the personal sacrifice that he made, legal segregation and Jim Crow was dismantled. Formerly “all white” lunch counters, restaurants, public transportation, theaters, museums, hotels, parks, swimming pools, beaches, courtrooms, libraries, and all places of public accommodation were desegregated and open to Blacks on the same condition as they were open for whites to enjoy. As a result of the personal sacrifice of Dr. LaFayette, and other civil rights activists on the front lines during the Civil Rights Movement, Blacks were able to enter professions that they had been historically excluded from. Unprecedented opportunities became available for Blacks to attend formerly “all white” colleges and universities and become doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, teachers, accountants, marketing and advertising executives, underwriters, investment bankers, broker-dealers, and elected officials on the local, state, and national level. Many have accumulated generational wealth. (It is being noted that Dr. LaFayette, and most of the civil rights pioneers, did not enjoy the financial benefits of the opportunities they made possible for the rest of us).

As a civil rights activist and advocate during the second half of the 20th century, Dr. LaFayette led the struggle for civil rights in many capacities including Program Administrator of the SCLC, National Coordinator of the Poor People’s Campaign, Director and Organizer of the Alabama Voters Registration Project in Selma, Alabama, and the Field Secretary for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in Jackson, Mississippi. For more than 50 years, he has remained steadfast in his uncompromising adherence and commitment to nonviolence in the struggle to attain civil rights and equal justice under law for all people despite being beaten and jailed over 27 times in campaigns to end Jim Crow during the 1960s. A complete and thorough list of all of his contributions to the civil rights struggle would require me to write a very lengthy document so I will highlight a few.

While a freshman at American Baptist College in Nashville, Dr. LaFayette worked closely with Diane Nash, Congressman John Lewis (Lewis), and James Bevel in the Nashville Student Movement. He was an organizer and a participant in sit-ins at lunch counters, restaurants, and other businesses that practiced racial segregation and refused service to Blacks.

Dr. LaFayette was a co-founder and leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960. He volunteered to join the Freedom Riders – college students – who rode buses through the dangerous South to test compliance with the United States Supreme Court’s recent ban on racial segregation in waiting rooms, restaurants, and other public facilities that served interstate travelers. Dr. LaFayette was clearly aware of the danger he faced as a freedom rider in Alabama and other states in the South. Despite his knowledge of the danger, he helped organize and joined the second group of riders after the first group was beaten by a mob in Anniston, Alabama and their bus firebombed and destroyed. Dr. LaFayette, along with Congressman John Lewis, was viciously beaten when a huge white mob surrounded the Greyhound bus and launched an attack on the freedom riders at the bus station in Montgomery, Alabama. Two days later, with three broken ribs but with an unbroken spirit and commitment to the freedom struggle, Dr. LaFayette, and the other riders continued on to Jackson, Mississippi where they were immediately arrested and jailed.

In 1963, Dr. LaFayette voluntarily went to Selma, Alabama and became the official director of SNCC’s Alabama Voter Registration Project. He worked with Ms. Amelia Boynton and local organizations to provide the local leadership needed to sustain the struggle for voting rights for Blacks. On the night of June 12, 1963, the same night that Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi, Dr. LaFayette was severely beaten in Selma in what was later determined to be a three state plot to kill civil rights leaders. Bleeding from his head, but still undeterred, he stayed in Selma and continued his voting rights work. In 1965, Dr. LaFayette (along with Dr. King, Diane Nash, James Bevel, and others) organized public demonstrations that culminated in the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March and passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. As a result of his close working relationship with Amelia Boynton, they became great friends. She requested that Dr. LaFayette deliver the eulogy at her funeral. He was honored to do so and delivered two eulogies for Mrs. Boynton.

Dr. LaFayette worked with the American Friends Service Committee and tested nonviolent methods to achieve social change. While working in Chicago, he mobilized young people to address the lead poisoning problem that existed in the homes of primarily low income residents on the West Side of the city.

In 1966, Dr. King launched SCLC’s Chicago Campaign. Dr. King recruited Dr. LaFayette and appointed him National Coordinator for the Poor People’s Campaign and Program Administrator to supervise the executive staff. He faithfully served and performed in an outstanding manner in both positions and worked with Dr. King until his death. (Dr, LaFayette was with Dr. King in Memphis the night before he was assassinated.)

Recognized nationally and internationally as a leader and authority on strategies for nonviolent social change, Dr. LaFayete has been invited to train thousands of community leaders, police and other correction personnel, prison inmates, and students. He has led education and training programs in Kingian Nonviolence throughout the United States and worldwide including in South Africa, Colombia, Nigeria, the Middle East, and Mexico.

Dr. LaFayette continues to serve in his current position as the National Chairman of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He founded and directed the University Of Rhode Island Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies. He became a recognized authority and trainer in Kingian Nonviolence at the state, national, and international level. He developed curricula and trained people for Alternatives to Violence Projects implemented in 30 states and 60 countries. He trained over 2,000 Cubans in nonviolence. (I and my husband accompanied him to Cuba to dedicate the Martin Luther King Nonviolence Center in Havana.)

I recognize that I am one of millions of direct beneficiaries of Dr. LaFayette’s unwavering commitment to fighting for equal rights and justice of all people, and Blacks in particular. I am one of millions of direct beneficiaries of his personal sacrifice to attain those gains. I am one of millions who are indebted to him for the opportunities he created for others. I am honored to be able to publicly thank Dr. LaFayette for all that he has done in this SCLC tribute to him.

Marilyn J. Ward, Ford, Esq. and Professor of Law

www.southernglazers.com

Rep. Randall Gaines Lauds SCLC Chairman, Dr. Bernard LaFayette Jr.

By: Prof. Maynard Eaton, Editor- in- Chief

“I consider Dr. Bernard LaFayette a Civil Rights gladiator”

Louisiana State Representative Randal Gaines speaks of SCLC’s 82-year-old National Board Chairman Dr. Bernard LaFayette Jr with reverence, awe and admiration.

“A gladiator is a courageous fighter that must make the ultimate sacrifice. So, the term gladiator appropriately applies to the role Dr. LaFayette played and the commitment he has made to the Civil Rights Movement, opines Rep. Gaines. “As far as his role in Selma, and I’ve studied it extensively, just out of appreciation for what I know about the contributions he made I was intrigued.

“As I’ve learned more and more about the role he played I was really beyond impressed. I’m astonished actually,” he continues. “I had a conversation with him in his home in July and we talked for about two hours. I had no idea that he was on the ground and intimately involved in some of the actions that shaped the direction of the whole Selma Movement”.

After a decade in office, Rep. Gaines has now emerged as Louisiana's top Black elected official and arguably its most influential. He is also a prominent attorney, civil rights activist and the Vice Chair of SCLC’s Board of Directors.

“I had a conversation with him in his [Tuskegee, Alabama] home in July and we talked for about two hours,” Gaines reveals. “I had no idea that he was on the ground and intimately involved in some of the actions that shaped the direction of the whole Selma Movement.” Because of that it is puzzling why Dr. LaFayette doesn’t get the praise and multi-media accolades his contemporaries have from historians, pundits and the civil rights community by most accounts. When the most highly regarded and popularly known civil rights leaders - such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Ambassador Andrew Young, John Lewis, Jesse Jackson, Rev. C.T. Vivian, Rev. Hosea Williams and Dr. Joseph Lowery - are discussed or written about Dr LaFayette is infrequently mentioned. That is arguably because the 82-year-old is among the few living legends of that fading civil rights era, plus he is reticent regarding self-aggrandizement.

“I find that to be true,” Gaines agrees and laments that director Ava DuVernay failed to have an actor portraying Dr. LaFayette in her acclaimed 2014 movie Selma. He told DuVernay that there should have been when he hosted the 2015 SCLC National Convention in Baton Rouge. “I presented her with a Louisiana Legislative Proclamation for opening the Civil Rights Movement to a whole new generation of activists and Black Americans,” Gaines recalls. “There is no way [Dr. LaFayette] shouldn’t have been in that movie, and he said he wasn’t sure why? I’m saying it is not historically accurate. [Directors] will take some parts of history and mesh it with creativity for it be

informative and entertaining,”

Gaines adds, “Based on what I see occurring today I think he is finally getting his recognition. “Like some of the people we have learned about and respect in The Movement, many of them knew how to gravitate towards the press,” Gaines affirms. “Many of them knew how to incite interest in themselves in the media. Sometimes it was for the cause; sometimes it was self-interest. Dr LaFayette was not inclined to seek self-adulation, but it doesn’t mean his role was no less impactful than those who did.”

The Voting Rights Act was signed into law on August 6, 1965, by President Lyndon Johnson, outlawing the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War.

Today, some allege it has come full circle from what it meant then to how it is applied now. “Based on my studies,” says the scholarly Gaines during our robust interview, “in 1961 Dr. LaFayette told James Foreman, who was the program coordinator for SNCC, ‘I will take Selma.’ When you look at the tragedies that occurred in Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement, in hindsight you realize how courageous that was. Several people lost their lives in the Selma Movement itself and the role they played in Selma in terms of fighting for voting rights for Blacks in Selma.

“Selma was the biggest challenge in the South. Only 10 percent of the eligible Black electorate in the deep South were registered to vote. In Selma and Shelby County it was only one percent. For Dr. LaFayette to take on that role; that was an extremely courageous step that he took. He was the first one to go in. His actual title was director of SNCC’s Alabama Voter Registration Project.”

That was in 1963. SNCC was the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, then chaired by the late Congressman John Lewis.

Selma was ground zero for voting rights in this country. Selma was the door opening for every political achievement that Blacks have made in America. It evolved and was created by the success of the Selma Movement.

Six months after the passage of the Voting Rights Act 450,000 Blacks in the deep South were registered to vote.

“It showed you the watershed effect of that Act,” opines Gaines. “It showed you the tremendous impact of that Act, and the tremendous achievement that it was brought about by SNCC and SCLC. It was a social justice achievement of epic proportions and the organizing that they did served as a model for those seeking their civil and human rights worldwide.”

Dr. Bernard LaFayette was the pioneering architect.

“He laid the foundation,” Gaines says. “Dr Martin Luther King just didn't just show up in Selma. Dr. LaFayette’s role was to generate interest and generate the need of why it was important to vote, He told me that he tied the right to vote to their everyday lives and how it would impact them personally if they went out to vote. He convinced them that if they fought for their right to vote, their lives were going to change.”

During our riveting interview, I asked Gaines what Dr. LaFayette means to him and America’s current crop of elected Black political leaders?

“I speak for countless other office holders when I say that I pay tribute mentally, orally to people like Dr. LaFayette and Dr. King every time I undertake a cause that is going to benefit Black people because I would not be able to do that had they not put their lives on the line for me to do it. I look to Dr. LaFayette as my mentor. I depend on him for inspiration, information and confirmation on how to make an impactful difference. He knows what it takes.”

Maynard Eaton is an eight time Emmy Award-winning multi-media journalist and the SCLC National Communication Director. After obtaining a Masters in Journalism at Columbia University, he has been featured on television and print outlets in Norfolk, Miami and Atlanta, where he has extensively covered civil rights luminaries including Andrew Young, CT Vivian, John Lewis, Bernard LaFayette and others. As an educator he has taught at Clark Atlanta University for two decades. Eaton was named Endowed Professor of Journalism at his Alma Mater Hampton University in 2022.

By: Ainka Jackson

Dr. LaFayette’s Selma 2.0 Charge!

How many people do you know who were leaders in the Nashville Sit-ins, Freedom Rides, Selma movement, Chicago movement and Poor People's campaign?

Dr. LaFayette, affectionately known as Doc, has commitment and vision like no other human being I’ve ever met. When people counted Selma out saying white folks were too mean and Black folks were too scared, he saw more. Even though he had seen first hand the viciousness of some 2000+ white people waiting to attack Freedom Riders in Selma. Later, when a white man tried to kill him in Selma on First and Union St. (now renamed Dr. Bernard LaFayette St.) in a tristate conspiracy to kill civil rights leaders, including the tragic assassination of Medgar Evers, he even saw more in the person who was trying to kill him—he saw the attempted assasinator’s humanity and dared to make him see his.

When Dallas county was the poorest county in the state in 2014 and USA Today named Selma the 9th poorest town in the Nation, he saw more. When others saw just the violence in Selma as the 8th most dangerous place in 2016 per capita in the Country to an increase in murders in Selma last year by 56%, he saw more. When others see just the Bridge, he sees more.Because he sees more and the exposure of a violence intervention model rooted in nonviolence in my Level II nonviolence training by Doc, our new program has helped to reduce murders by nearly 40% this year!

He sees Selma 2.0- the unfinished business of the Civil Rights movement—the Beloved Community. In the very first Board meeting of the Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth & Reconciliation, of which he is a cofounder and Board Chair, he said, there is unfinished business of the Civil Rights Movement and that we

Dr. LaFayette gives Ainka Jackson her Level III Certification for institutionalizing nonviolence with Mama Kate.

The Selma Center for Nonviolence and Tabernacle Legacy Foundation renamed Union St. after Dr. LaFayette and celebrated with SCLC, family, neighbors and God-daughter, Azali in May of 2022. This is the location of his attempted assasination.

need a Selma 2. He gave us our Selma 2.0 charge to Bridge Divides and build the Beloved Community. We desire to make Selma a model of the Beloved Community so that when people come to visit it’s not just for Selma’s history but for models of healing! Because of Dr. LaFayette’s vision, courage and commitment, we are well on our way of making that a reality!

He sees more and he does more. When others use us just for a once a year photo opp, he continues to see more and to invest in us. Working for us all year long whether as the Chair of our working Board or as our Master Trainer leading a training of the trainers twice a year in Selma or by consistently checking on me, praying for and guiding me along the way, coming to Selma whenever we need him. I think this shows the heart of him and Mama Kate especially. No matter how busy they are, they often call to check on me and to encourage me when I should be doing that for them. Whether encouraging me through giving me and Mary Liuzzo Lilleboe the first annual In Peace and Freedom award or just a call to admire my leadership of the Selma Center, they are pure love and light! They are the true leaders!

Dr. LaFayette took to heart Dr. King’s last words to him on the day that Dr. King was assassinated. He told him the next battleground was to internalize and institutionalize nonviolence and that’s just what he has dedicated his life to. The Selma Center was born from that conversation and continues that legacy because of Dr. LaFayette. So whether it’s helping to start the Selma Center for Nonviolence or nonviolence centers across the globe or instituting nonviolence in prisons in Columbia, South America or helping to stop civil wars in Nigeria with nonviolence, he has never sought the spotlight but instead has honored Dr. King’s final desire.

Unfortunately, it’s also why too few know of his amazing legacy. It’s also why the Selma Center created a children’s book series called, “Selma Superheroes,” so that children know the amazing legacy of people who lived in Selma like Doc and encourages youth to be Selma 2.0 Solutionaries! The first volume in the series is

Selma Center Social Justice Interns attend SCLC convention in Memphis. Also met Mary Liuzzo Lilleboe, daughter of Viola Liuzzo and cofounder of the Selma Center Alternative Break Program.

called, “My Peace & Justice Journey: The Journey of Bernard LaFayette Jr. on His Road to Freedom.”

So today I ask that we all follow Dr. LaFayette’s example and use nonviolence conflict reconciliation whenever and wherever there is injustice, conflict and pain. That we recognize that conflict is inevitable but combat isn’t. That we recognize that we can’t build the Beloved Community unless we “be” the Beloved Community. That we use the power of nonviolence, which is positive peace to heal and restore our communities with the force of love because that’s exactly what Doc has done for us! Thank you Doc!

Founding Director of the Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth and Reconciliation. Former Public Defender, Teacher and Social Worker. Level 3 Nonviolence Trainer, creator and editor of Selma Superheroes Series and co-creator of the Beyond Divide and Conquer: Unite and Build Racial Equity Trainer.

Dr. LaFayette leads the Selma Center’s most challenging, largest and beautiful training with those with advanced degrees and intellectual disabilities. The graduation ceremony was electric!

Marking History: Preserving the Legacy of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

By: Autumn Smith

When we learn about history in grade school, we learn a small portion of African American history. Educators teach Black history in a shallow manner that does not show the complex and intricate moments of the African American experience. When Black history is taught in school or discussed in popular culture, it is minimized to a few historical figures and events. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr is one of the figures often taught about in school and discussed in popular culture, but the organization he led that spearheaded the Civil Rights Movement, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, is not often discussed. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) has had an impactful history in American culture. The SCLC led the Birmingham movement, the March on Washington, and then Selma Movement, but unfortunately, their name has fallen in the shadows.

Preservation of historic African American organizations and communities is not as profound as it should be, and it has caused many organizations not to be justly celebrated. Historical organizations and academic institutions are beginning to emphasize the importance of preserving African American stories. Organizations like the National Trust, the American Association of Museums, and the Georgia Historical Society are beginning to start initiatives and grants that are specifically geared toward preserving the United States Civil Rights Movement. The Rich Foundation Inc, a foundation established to distribute a share of the profits of the Rich’s department store based in Atlanta, GA, has also begun to push for preserving African American organizations. The Rich Foundation, originally a department store that Dr. King protested against, has started recognizing their previous mistreatment of African Americans and making amends for past injustices. The Georgia Historical Society has introduced an initiative to identify Civil Rights sites in Georgia and place historical markers. Together, the Rich Foundation and the Georgia Historical Society sponsored and erected a historical marker for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference on November 3, 2022. Placing the historic maker at the National SCLC headquarters in Atlanta, GA, was a significant step in preserving and bringing notoriety to this historic organization.

As a historian, I am drawn to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference most for its influence in every major civil rights event. Their impact is felt throughout the country to this day, and their legacy continues to inspire young African Americans. To be able to lead the efforts in getting the historical marker for the national SCLC is one of the proudest moments of my career, and I am honored to be trusted with the legacy of such a great organization. As someone who focuses on historic preservation and gentrification in African American communities, it felt like a duty of mine to help orchestrate the historical marker for a vulnerable organization in their home state. The dedication ceremony was especially moving because Dr. Bernard LaFayette, Dr. Martin Luther King

Jr’s aide, was the keynote speaker.

Dr. LaFayette has been a leader and pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement for over sixty years, and to hear him tell his stories of trials and triumphs at that moment was a once-in-alifetime experience.

Preserving the history of the SCLC is essential not only to remember for their contributions to civil rights but also their contribution to American history. The leaders of SCLC, such as C.T. Vivian, Ralph Abernathy, Joseph Lower, and Andrew Young, have all impacted the entire United States. Working side-by-side with Dr. LaFayette and other civil rights legends throughout the years will always be some of the most memorable experiences of my life. I am proud to be able to carry the torch for such extraordinary leaders and organization.

Autumn Smith is a historian whose research focuses on 20th-century African American History. Smith is currently the program coordinator for the Truth and Transformative initiative at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights.

Ripples from the past

By: James LaFayette Jr

It is clear that we live in a quite turbulent time in our history, not only within our country but across the whole world. Recently, we have seen innumerable examples of violence. We’ve even noticed that some who once did not even consider the idea of violence have been radicalized and emboldened to commit terrible acts. But it’s important for us to remember that this is not something we should accept in our society, important for us to keep this trend from being normalized. Reasons like this are why I continue to look up to my grandfather, the great Rev Dr. Bernard La Fayette Jr – a pioneer of education in the principles of Kingian nonviolence – for inspiration and guidance throughout my life.

My grandfather was born in 1940, in the midst of statesanctioned segregation, racism, and discrimination in the American south. Less than a century earlier, the Confederacy lost a bloody battle in the pursuit of preserving the institution of slavery, but this didn’t change the societal issues at large that plagued the country. Formerly enslaved Americans, predominantly Black, still were trapped in the system of sharecropping. Just under 50 years before my grandfather was born, while Jim Crow laws dominated the south, the Supreme Court ruled that the insidious racial segregation laws were constitutional in the Plessy v Ferguson case.

Hence, my grandfather attended segregated schools and experienced numerous accounts of racism and discrimination. But what I admire about my grandfather is that he didn’t stand down to these injustices, but rather fought back against them. Despite all his past experiences, and a large group of society trying to tear him down, he stood firm. And it wasn’t just for himself – it was to correct a wrong that had been long endured by his predecessors, to stand up for people like him who were oppressed, and to ensure a future where nobody would have to experience this mistreatment again. Working with great men and women like James Lawson, Representative John Lewis, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, this journey proved to be successful, and in 1964, landmark Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts were passed. My grandfather and his colleagues, through principles of nonviolence, taught the country, and the world, that we don’t have to accept inequality. Their actions paved the way for future generations to continue their work

and keep moving towards a more equal society for everyone.

Being a Black man born in 2003, I certainly felt the ripples from my grandfather’s work. I was able to easily attend the same schools, use the same facilities, and gain equal opportunities as my peers who were white. In the grand scheme of the universe, I feel lucky to have been born in such a time and thankful for those who fought for this to be true, including my grandfather. However, as I grow up, it is clear to me that his work, and our work as a country, is not yet finished.

I frequently turn on the television to watch the news and stay updated about world events, and while there are many bright spots and great things happening every day, most of what I’ve seen has been worrying. Injustice around the world happens more frequently than we think, and the news and the internet highlight many cases of it. Police brutality, hate crimes, political polarization, extremism, and even war have been some of the most disturbing occurrences to come out of the past decade. While the intensity of these is daunting, I don’t consider these to be completely new. I remember that my grandfather and his peers experienced this too, and they fought back against it. When we see these injustices, we must use what we learned from history, what I learned from my grandfather. As a world, we must not fight violence with violence, but begin a worldwide call for peace. Like those who came before us, it’s up to us to correct the wrongs endured by our predecessors, to stand up for those who can’t defend themselves, and to create a new path for our future generations to walk on.

Latonya Crisp Recording Sec’y

Lynwood Whichard Administrative VP

John V. Chiarello Sec’y Treasurer

Richard Davis President