PEORIA (Heart of Illinois ABC) – Family members of late civil rights activist CT Vivian helped celebrate the renaming of a Peoria elementary school in Vivian’s name on Friday, and also answered concerns that the school is no longer named after Thomas Jefferson.
Vivian’s son Al admitted that not everyone is happy about the renaming of organizations and institutions like the school at 918 West Florence Avenue.
Jefferson, the nation’s third president, wrote the Declaration of Independence, but also owned slaves.
The younger Vivian called the school’s name change a “perfect transition” from Jefferson, who wrote the document on American rights, to his father, who was part of the team that guaranteed those rights for everyone.
“Yes, we’re changing things, but that doesn’t take away our history either,” said Vivian.
“This is us as a society who live what America was founded for … to become a more perfect union,” he added.
Vivian’s daughter Jo Anna, also known as Jo Jo, also attended the ceremony.
“Daddy would be as proud as we are as a family,” she said.
“I’m really glad it’s an elementary school because Daddy really loved kids,” she added.
“We have always been taught in our family that education is something that no one can take away from you, and therefore this is an even greater honor,” said Jo Jo Vivian.
Vivian was a national civil rights activist and worked with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. together, but he had Peoria roots.
School Board President Greg Wilson noted that Vivian instituted a first act of civil disobedience in 1947 to incorporate Barton’s cafeteria in Peoria.
“I can 100 percent say I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for men and women like CT Vivian to map out people who look like me,” said Wilson.
CT Vivian died in July 2020. He was 95 years old.
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