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.