C. T. Vivian - Its in the Action: Memories of a Nonviolent Warrior

Table of Contents

ITS IN THE ACTION

NewSouth Books

105 S. Court Street

Montgomery, AL 36104

Copyright 2021 by the Estate of C. T. Vivian

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by NewSouth Books, Montgomery, Alabama.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Vivian, C. T., author. | Fiffer, Steve, author. | Young, Andrew, 1932- writer of foreword.

Title: Its in the action : memories of a nonviolent warrior / C.T. Vivian with Steve Fiffer ; foreword by Andrew Young.

Other titles: It is in the action

Description: Montgomery, AL : NewSouth Books, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: C. T. Vivians life was never defined by the discrimination and hardship he faced, although there were many instances of both throughout his lifetime. The late civil rights leader instead focused on his faith in God and his steadfast belief in nonviolence, extending these principles nationwide as a member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Its in the Action contains Vivians recollections, ranging from finding religion at the young age of five to his imprisonment as part of the Freedom Rides. The late civil rights leaders heart-wrenching and inspiring stories from a lifetime of nonviolent activism come just in time for a new generation of activists, similarly responding to systems of injustice, violence, and oppression. Its in the Action is a record of a life dedicated to selflessness and morality, qualities achieved by Vivian that we can all aspire to. provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020050142 (print) | LCCN 2020050143 (ebook) | ISBN 9781588384416 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781588384423 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Vivian, C. T. | African American civil rights workersBiography. | Civil rights workersUnited StatesBiography. | African American clergyBiography. | Civil rights movementsSouthern StatesHistory20th century. | African AmericansCivil rights. | NonviolenceUnited StatesHistory. | Southern StatesRace relations.

Classification: LCC E185.97.V58 A3 2021 (print) | LCC E185.97.V58 (ebook) | DDC 323.092 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020050142LC

ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020050143

Printed in the United States of America by Sheridan

To my wife, who persevered and continued
to love and care throughout the years of my being away
from home for the sake of the struggle,
who continued to raise our children and transferred
to them even in the presence of radical evil
the faith that we both hold in God and man.

C. T. V.

Do to us what you will and we will still love you.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

C. T. Vivian loved wordsspoken or written. In fact, its probably not an exaggeration to say that the only thing C. T. loved more than words was his family: his wife, Octavia, his children, his grandchildren, and yes, his great-grandchildren.

Before he received his true calling from a higher being, C. T. thought his calling was to be a journalist. He would have been a great one. Because he could turn a phrase like he could turn the other cheek. And he could quote our great poetsfrom Phillis Wheatley to Langston Hughesand thinkersfrom Du Bois to Ellisonas readily as he could quote Scripture.

His love of the written word is reflected in his collection of more than six thousand volumesfiction, nonfiction, and poetrywritten by African Americans about the Black experience. As his daughter Denise Morse told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Growing up, we had books everywhere. On every table, stacked in the corners. He and Mom would get in a car and drive to California, stopping at little bookstores along the way. They would come home with a trunkload of books.

Im happy to report that the C. T. and Octavia Vivian Library will be housed within the base of the 110-foot Peace Column in the upcoming Rodney Cook Sr. Park in Atlantas Vine City.

When C. T. took his own pen to paper he was as skillful as any of the writers in his vast collection. Witness his elegant, thoughtful portrait of Martin included at the end of this book. Consider, too, his first book, Black Power and the American Myth, equally thoughtful, but grittier.

In recent years it seems that anyone who passed through Washington, D.C., had a reality TV show, or went viral has written a memoir. Over the last half-century, C. T. certainly had the opportunity. Im not sure why he waited so long. Maybe it was because he wasnt one to talk that much about himself, maybe he was too busy fighting the good fight, or maybe he wanted to wait until he had it all figured out.

I, for one, wish hed started a little earlier than when he was in his nineties, but were blessed to have Its in the Actionwhich while certainly chronicling C. T.s actions in the movement also offers his thoughts on those actions. By this I mean that in the telling of his efforts in Peoria, Nashville, Chattanooga, Birmingham, St. Augustine, Selma, Chicago, and then Atlanta, he reflects upon the principles that guided himlove, faith, justice. Think of all those places! C. T.s journey is a roadmap of the movement itself.

I feel honored to have called C. T. a friend and stood shoulder to shoulder with him. Now, thanks to Its in the Action, his words will live on forever, and new generations can stand on the shoulders of one of the great Americans of all time.

Andrew Young is a politician, diplomat, and pastor from Georgia who has served as mayor of Atlanta, congressman, and United States ambassador to the United Nations. He also served as president of the National Council of Churches USA and was a supporter and friend of Martin Luther King Jr. He lives in Atlanta.

C. T. Vivian was one of my heroes. It was, therefore, a thrill of a lifetime to interview him in 2014 about his days in Selma for a book I was writing with Adar Cohen: Jimmie Lee & James: Two Lives, Two Deaths, and the Movement that Changed America. He was a wonderful conversationalist and made me feel at ease immediately; he called me Doc, as I later realized he called scores of others he interacted with.

Most surprising to me was that he said he envied my career. My career! Here was an icon of the civil rights movement, a man who had selflessly and bravely worked for changes that bettered the lives of so many Americans, a Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, confessing that if hed had his druthers he would have been a writer. Of course, if you listen to his sermons or speeches or his spontaneous remarks to the likes of Selmas infamous Sheriff Jim Clark or read his 1970 book,