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

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