Jo Anna Vivian Walker, Denise Vivian Morse, Kira Vivian, Mark E. Vivian, Charisse Vivian Thornton and Al Vivian
- The authors are the children of CT Vivian.
The anniversary of Papa’s death brings back memories. As described in our father’s book, It’s in the Action: Memories of a Nonviolent Warrior, Nashville played a central role in the civil rights movement. Today we are proud to assert the role he and our family played in Nashville in the 1960s.
Our father, civil rights activist CT Vivian, passed away in the early morning of July 17th, 2020. From that moment on, news of his death and life story spread through massive media coverage around the world.
The appreciation and recognition of his role in the civil rights movement, in particular the passage of the voting rights law in 1965, made him better known after his death than he was during his lifetime.
A very humble leader, he began his service at the Historic First Community Church, and four of us were born there while our family lived in Nashville. We feel so close to the city and everything it stands for.
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Vivian’s role in the civil rights movement began in Nashville
In the year since his death, interest in and appreciation for CT has increased dramatically. This is due on the one hand to the national debate about the right to vote, for which he fought so hard, and on the other hand to the publication of his only memoir “It’s in the Action”. The memoir is indeed a chronicle of the struggle for civil rights in the 20th century.
CT began its involvement in restaurant sit-ins in Peoria, Illinois in 1947 and continued the fight by leading the 1960s Nashville Integration Movement, Freedom Rider jailed and beaten in Mississippi, was a key role played in Birmingham, St. Augustine, and Selma before correctly identifying the north as the next battlefield and moving to Chicago.
But it wasn’t until Nashville that his role in the civil rights movement really took off.
Papa was always a leader. As a boy, he made his classmates believe in the principles of non-violence. As one of the few African American students at Macomb High School, he became president of several school associations.
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He began his college career at Western Illinois University and later moved to the American Baptist College in Nashville with his wife Octavia and family. There he ran sit-ins at the lunch counter in the late 1950s and early 1960s that led to the desegregation of the city.
July becomes the month to celebrate the legacy of this icon
CT’s memoirs have garnered media attention from coast to coast, and luminaries such as Andrew Young, Bernard Lafayette, Dr. Bernice King and memoir contributor Steve Fiffer have spoken to numerous groups interested in learning more about him.
In addition, over 700 copies of the memoirs have been distributed to high school and college students in multiple cities where CT has made a name.
Now as we celebrate his life again on the anniversary of his death, the anniversary of his return home on July 23, and the anniversary of his birth 97 years ago on July 30, July becomes the month in which CT Vivian is celebrated.
“It’s In The Action”, his memoir, has grown in popularity as we nearer these dates. Its importance in sharing Nashville history cannot be underestimated.
The memory of CT Vivian will live on, but the momentum to acknowledge his heroic past has only just begun. His books will lead the way, along with many programs to follow in the year ahead.
We also plan to hold a book signing and ceremony this fall at the Historic First Community Church, where CT preached for the first time in Nashville. This will be our family reunion with you.
Written by CT Vivian’s children: Jo Anna Vivian Walker, Denise Vivian Morse, Kira Vivian, Mark E. Vivian, Charisse Vivian Thornton, and Al Vivian. Learn more by visiting the CT and Octavia Vivian Museum and Archives.
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