Both Rep. John Lewis (1940-2020) and Rev. C. T. Vivian (1925-2020) were heroes of mine. But I only met Rep. Lewis once—and that was at a conference in the early 2000s where I got him to sign my copy of his autobiography, Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement. But I actually got to know Rev. Vivian. Not well. We weren’t buddies. But we did both serve on some of the same peace and justice boards in the ‘90s and 2000s. Our time on the boards of the Interfaith Alliance, The Fellowship of Reconciliation, and of Bread for the World all overlapped.
Since I am both the child of minor (white, Southern) activists during the Civil Rights movement and an amateur historian of the same, I got Rev. Vivian to recount events to me every chance I had. Often I urged him to give his perspective on events that had been frequently described by others. In so doing, I got to know the man somewhat. I found him remarkably gentle, kind and hopeful. He had been working for justice since 1947 when he was one of the founders (along with James Farmer and Bayard Rustin) of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE). As a young man, he worked to desegregate parks and swimming pools in Chicago.
He was one of the older people involved in the Nashville Sit-In Movement of 1960 (mostly led by younger folk like John Lewis, Diane Nash, James Bevel, Bernard Lafayette, etc.). And by 1962 he had joined the staff of The Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) and become one of Dr. King’s closest advisors. In the documentary, Eyes on the Prize, one can see Rev. Vivian boldly confront Sheriff Jim Clark on the steps of the courthouse, get punched in the nose (blood everywhere), but continue preaching to Clark and calling him to repent of being “an enemy of democracy” while the nonviolent protesters were “willing to die for democracy and brotherhood.” (“Brotherhood” was considered an inclusive term in the 1960s.)
I am glad for all the tributes today to Rep. Lewis. But I wanted to make sure that C. T. Vivian was not overshadowed. He has become one of the many “forgotten heroes” of that 2nd movement for reconstruction. As we are at the beginning of a 3rd (and, hopefully, successful) reconstruction, we need to learn from ALL the champions of the last freedom movement.