An autobiography by national civil rights pioneer CT Vivian will be released on March 16.
Vivian grew up in Macomb and began holding anti-segregation sit-ins in Peoria in the 1940s to successfully integrate Barton’s cafeteria – a dozen years before college student protests against the lunch break broke national news.
Vivian, a close friend and lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr., died in Atlanta last year at the age of 95.
“We had to change the way the nation thought, felt and acted about its own humanity and the humanity of others,” Vivian told the Journal Star as part of her Legacy Project series on the civil rights movement. “This is far more than passing a law.”
“It’s in the Action” has a chapter about Vivian’s Nashville days, said the book’s co-author, Steve Fiffer, who helped finalize the autobiography after Vivian’s death.
Vivian lived in Tennessee for 18 years. During that time, he helped put pressure on Nashville city officials to make Music City the first place in the south to incorporate lunch counters. Vivian helped lead a march of 3,000 to 4,000 protesters to City Hall to confront then-Mayor Ben West.
“I think Nashville is one of the least reported and underrated moments in the movement,” said Fiffer.
“It’s a really important stop on the civil rights path.”
Cordy Tindell Vivian was born on July 28, 1924 in Howard County, Missouri, but moved to Macomb with his mother as a young boy. He studied theology with future civil rights leader and US Congressman John Lewis at American Baptist College in Nashville, where they trained waves of activists on nonviolent protest.
President Barack Obama awarded Vivian the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013. On the day it was announced, he told Journal Star reporter Pam Adams, “Make sure all of my actions, all of my nonviolent social actions in Peoria have started. Everything goes back to Macomb and Peoria. “
If he hadn’t learned nonviolence in Peoria, he told students at the Glen Oak Community Learning Center during a 2013 visit that he would never have been able to work with King.
More:Location of Rev. CT Vivian’s Children’s Home in Macomb for the state historical marker
It’s in the Action, Vivian’s second and last book, is available for pre-order now for USD 24.95 on Amazon.
It will also be available on March 16th. The 208-page book contains 24 pages with pictures.
Reach Brad Schmitt at [email protected] or (615) 259-8384 or on Twitter @bradschmitt.
Journal Star’s employee reports contributed to this.
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