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.