(WTVF/AP) — The Rev. C.T. Vivian has died at the age of 95. He was an early civil rights leader who worked alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and later directed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He was also instrumental in the Nashville sit-ins in 1960.
Vivian's civil rights work began in the 1940s with sit-in demonstrations in Peoria, Ill. He met King soon after the budding civil rights leader’s victory in the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. Vivian helped organize the Freedom Rides to integrate busing across the South, and risked his life to register voters in Alabama.
According to The New York Times, Vivian heard Dr. King speak on nonviolence for the first time while studying for the ministry at the American Baptist College in Nashville in 1957.
Vivian was also part of the Nashville sit-ins, which lasted from February 13 to May 10, 1960. The sit-ins were part of a nonviolent campaign to end racial segregation at lunch counters in downtown.
Rep. Mike Stewart (D -- Nashville) called Vivian a "giant" in the civil rights movement, saying "Rev. Vivian, alongside Diane Nash, John Lewis and many others, was at the forefront of the lunch-counter protests that desegregated downtown Nashville. The success of the Nashville sit-ins paved the way for the disciplined, peaceful protests that swept the South lead by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."
I offer my condolences to Rev. C.T. Vivian's family after his passing this morning. Rev. Vivian's courage, wisdom, and dedication to civil rights had a significant impact on Nashville, the South, and our country. pic.twitter.com/mfCpP01Otg
— Mayor John Cooper (@JohnCooper4Nash) July 17, 2020
President Barack Obama gave Vivian the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.
