True, most of the people receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom this year are part of “a group of people who are household names to Americans”, as Reuters reported last week. So why is Cordy Tindell Vivian on the list?
The Rev. C. T. Vivian isn’t as well known as Bill Clinton, Ernie Banks, Loretta Lynn or Oprah Winfrey—all of whom are among this year’s honorees—but he’s arguably more deserving than any of them for his lifetime of work advancing the cause of freedom. The citation in the press release hits the highlights of Rev. Vivian’s remarkable career:
C.T. Vivian is a distinguished minister, author, and organizer. A leader in the Civil Rights Movement and friend to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he participated in Freedom Rides and sit-ins across our country. Dr. Vivian also helped found numerous civil rights organizations, including Vision, the National Anti-Klan Network, and the Center for Democratic Renewal. In 2012, he returned to serve as interim President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
While working as a recreation director in Peoria, IL, in 1947, Vivian took part in sit-ins that desegregated Barton’s Cafeteria. Twelve years later, as a seminarian at American Baptist College, he became a key leader among the remarkable group of students trained in Gandhian nonviolence by the Rev. James Lawson who successfully negotiated the desegregation of downtown Nashville lunch counters in 1960.
After participating in virtually every significant civil rights campaign over the next five years with Dr. King, Rev. Vivian started Vision, a college readiness program in Alabama that sent over 700 Black students to college on scholarships. You may not have heard of Vision, but you’ve probably heard of Upward Bound, for which Vision was the model. (And if you haven’t, Vivian’s co-honoree Oprah Winfrey has; she’s an Upward Bound alumna.)
The National Anti-Klan Network—and its successor, the Center for Democratic Renewal—was one of the most significant vehicles for nonviolently confronting and defeating the white power and skinhead groups that emerged in the 1980s and 90s alongside of the remnants of the KKK.
In 2008, at the age of 84, Rev. Vivian was still creating new organizations through which to carry out his life-long commitment to freedom, justice, dignity and nonviolence.
And that’s why Cordy Tindell Vivian is on the list.
Crossposted at: http://masscommons.wordpress.com/