NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — He played a role in some of the most important moments for civil rights in Nashville and beyond. After a heart attack, Bernard Lafayette has just died at 85-years-old.
I went back in the archive to see the many times he visited with NewsChannel 5.
"It was Nashville that appropriated the non-violent strategies and movements to other places," Lafayette told a class in 1995.
Big moments of Lafayette's story were part of Carlton Wilkinson's childhood.
"I'm very proud to know that Bernard Lafayette was one of us," Wilkinson said.
Wilkinson's mother was DeLois Wilkinson.
"We were very involved as a family in the civil rights movement," Wilkinson continued. "[My mother] worked through the church. First Baptist Capitol Hill."
Wilkinson's mother was helping students organize the Nashville sit-ins, a 1960 effort to desegregate lunch counters in downtown Nashville. That effort included Woolworth's.
"It was just around me, people coming to the home, John Lewis, Bernard Lafayette," Wilkinson continued. "He was just around. He was there. He was connected."
Also in 1960, Lafayette helped in creating the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The hope was to change Nashville and change the country.
"Dr. Lafayette just had tireless energy," Wilkinson remembered. "He was so involved with so many things. He was just a dynamo."
The sit-ins were just the beginning.
In 2007, Vanderbilt University retraced the 1961 route into Alabama of The Freedom Rides. Invited to take the trip with them were original Freedom Riders including Lafayette. The original riders challenged segregation of bus seating. An interesting detail is Wilkinson's mother once arranged for the group's bail after an arrest.
Lafayette also took part in a series of demonstrations including the march from Selma to Montgomery that helped lead to the passing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It prohibited racial discrimination in voting.
On Jefferson Street today, there are columns with pictures of important figures in the community. Lafayette's picture is next to other important names in civil rights like John Lewis and Diane Nash. Actually, on a column just up and over, is DeLois Wilkinson. Her son is so glad to have grown up around people who set out to make change and did.
"He lived a long life as a leader and African griot," Wilkinson said. "A griot is someone who keeps the records. They would be that individual who would teach history. They were the ones who taught the young people and kept record. Dr. Lafayette was one of the principles in changing culture in Nashville and the southern United States. That's major."
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
The Jefferson Street Sound Museum is a great little gem in North Nashville. The founder and curator turned his home into a museum to keep the legacy of historic Jefferson street alive. Now, it's been named a stop on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail. Aaron Cantrell takes us inside.
- Lelan Statom
