Activism

Opinion: John Lewis, C.T. Vivian Together Helped Start Voting Rights Movement, Died on Same Day in Atlanta Commentary

Published

4 years ago

July 23, 2020

The news of the passing of two veteran Civil Rights leaders and giants John Lewis and C.T.Vivian, on the same day, jolted the nation’s consciousness, especially around the need for Blacks and other minorities to continue to register, vote and fully participate in the census to assure our voices are heard. They were considered “prophetic activist pathfinders” in the biblical tradition of Jeremiah “running to and fro through the streets, looking for a man to execute justice.”

They together added their voices, “made trouble” and were persecuted along with Daisy Bates, Septima Clark, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Medgar and Myrlie Evers, Andrew Young, Fannie Lou Hamer, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Ella Baker, Rev. Hosea Williams, Dorothy Height, Rev Joseph Lowery, Rosa Parks, Rev. James Lawson, Diane Nash, Rev. James Bevel and Rev. Jesse Jackson helped to birth the Civil Rights movement of the 60’s, and they both died on the same day to join the pantheon of pioneering prophetic voices.

The news of their passing jolted the nation’s consciousness, especially around the need for Blacks and other minorities to continue to register, vote, and fully participate in the census to assure our voices are heard.

They gave their lives to make sure we are counted so that we can benefit when the roll is called in the upcoming November election — and when the trillions of federal dollars are distributed in 2021.

John Lewis, a minister and an Atlanta congressman from Alabama, shed blood in Selma to earn his civil rights icon status. He continued his indefatigable dedication for voting rights, from his participation in SNCC and VEP (Voter Education Project) until the day he died at 80 in Atlanta. Lewis had collaborated with Vivian while studying theology in Nashville, and the two of them were among the original 1961 Freedom Riders seeking to expose racism and to integrate southern facilities.

C.T. Vivian, a minister and Southern Christian Leadership Conference organizer who pioneered the politics of constructive confrontation behavior in employing voter registration strategies, also shed blood in Selma one month before Lewis, when he confronted Sheriff Clark. Both he and Lewis attracted national media coverage for their courageous challenges. Their sacrifices woke up the nation to the fact that Black votes mattered.

Their struggles and deaths remind us of the courageous volunteerism of the students and activists, who were mostly white, and had worked side-by-side with the Black faith-based community in 1964 and were among those arrested and killed for the right of Blacks to vote. Vivian, 95, like Lewis, was an activator who stirred the pot of activism that motivated organizers like Rev. William Barber and Stacey Abrams. He too died in Atlanta just hours before Lewis.

Lewis and Vivian joined Rev. Joseph Lowery, who also died this year at 98 in Atlanta, the birthplace of Dr. King.

I had the opportunity to march and work with both ministers Lewis and Vivian since the 1965 Selma, Alabama Voting Rights March 1965 as a student, reporter, faith-based organizer and field director for the Southern Elections Fund and the Southern Regional Council, also headquartered in Atlanta.

While my wife Gay Plair Cobb and I lived in Atlanta from 1973 to 1977. Gay was director of the Department of Labor’s Women Bureau in Atlanta before serving in Washington, D.C. with former Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman. We rented the home of Jane Bond and Howard Moore and utilized our residence for many “organizing gatherings and meetings” with many people from the network of civil rights activists.

The Southern Elections Fund (SEF) was headed by the legendary Julian Bond who was also a Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) founder and member of the Georgia Legislature. Bond served as SEF Chair while Yancey Martin, who was a top advisor to Senator McGovern’s Presidential Campaign, was the Director. My job was to travel throughout the 11 southern states of the old confederacy to help organize voting and election strategies for Blacks. We helped raise funds and provided voter strategies for hundreds of Blacks, including Mississippi congressman Bennie Thompson (see SEF Ebony March 1975, story www.postnewsgroup.com).

I hope faith-based leaders, the Congressional Black Caucus, civil Rights activists and the participants in the Black Lives Matter Movement will dedicate their efforts to monitor the electoral process and demand that the DigiTech companies not become complicit with efforts by those who seek to suppress the Black vote. When I delivered the commencement address at Holy Names University, I challenged the students and the University — since it is in the heart of Oakland with a history of civil rights activism — to commit themselves to the causes of voting, census and ethnic studies in our schools. The passing of Lewis, Vivian and Lowery should resurrect a spirit of activism in all of us.

The Post will continue to provide information on voter suppression tactics. We will monitor social media and any attempts to discourage the Black vote.

Paul Cobb, Post News Group Publisher

Posts by Paul Cobb, Post News Group Publisher

Related Topics:C.T. Vivian featured John Lewis

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Activism

In 1974, Then-Gov. Jimmy Carter Visited the Home of Oakland Black Black Political Activist Virtual Murrell While Running for President

civil rights icon Georgia State Representative Julian Bond said that Carter, along with governors Reuben Askew of Florida, Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, and Terry Sanford of North Carolina, were all a part of what was being dubbed the “New South” and so supported civil rights and voting rights for African Americans.

Published

1 day ago

January 3, 2025

Oakland Post

Virtual Murrell chats with Jimmy Carter two years before Carter was elected president in 1976. Courtesy photo.

By Virtual T. Murrell
Special to The Post

On his way to seeking the presidency, then-Gov. Jimmy Carter visited the Bay Area in his capacity as campaign chairman of the Democratic National Committee in March of 1974.

A friend of mine, Bill Lynch, a Democrat from San Francisco, had been asked to host Carter, who was then relatively unknown. Seeking my advice on the matter, I immediately called my friend, civil rights icon Georgia State Representative Julian Bond, for his opinion.

Bond said that Carter, along with governors Reuben Askew of Florida, Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, and Terry Sanford of North Carolina, were all a part of what was being dubbed the “New South” and so supported civil rights and voting rights for African Americans.

Based on Julian’s comments, I agreed to host the governor. We picked him up at the San Francisco Airport. With his toothy smile, I could tell almost right away that he was like no other politician I had ever met. On his arrival, there was a message telling him to go to the VIP room, where he met then-Secretary of State Jerry Brown.

After leaving the airport, we went to a reception in his honor at the home of Paul “Red” Fay, who had served as the acting secretary of the Navy under President John Kennedy. (Carter, it turned out, had been himself a 1946 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and served as a submariner in the 1950s.)

The following afternoon, the Niagara Movement Democratic Club hosted a reception for Carter, which was a major success. Carter indicated that he would be considering running for president and hoped for our support if he did so.

As the event was winding down, I witnessed the most amazing moment: Carter’s wife, Rosalynn, was in the kitchen with my former wife, Irene, wearing an apron and busting suds! You would have to have been there to see it: The first and last time a white woman cleaned up my kitchen.

A few months later, President Richard Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal. He was succeeded by his vice president, Gerald Ford.

On the heels of that scandal, Jimmy Carter’s election in 1976 represented integrity and honesty at a point in America’s history when he was just what the nation needed to lead as president of the United States.

Oakland Post

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Oakland Post: Week of January 1 – 7, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of January 1 – 7, 2025

Published

3 days ago

January 2, 2025

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

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Racially Motivated Violence Against Black Teen Prompts $10 Million Claim Against LAUSD 

In December, a second altercation, on a video shared with news media, showed 4 to 6 boys attacking a Black student and using racial slurs. The video also shows a person in a safety vest trying to stop the fight and telling them to “handle it after school.” Then, the video ends. 

Published

6 days ago

December 30, 2024

Oakland Post

(Left to right) Civil Rights Attorney Caree Harper comforts the victim’s mother as she becomes emotional when describing the attacks on her son while her attorney Bradley C. Gage listens. Verdugo Hills High School on Thursday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Tujunga, CA. (Solomon O. Smith /for California Black Media)

By Solomon O. Smith, California Black Media

A distraught mother and her legal team announced a $10 million lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) on Dec. 16, alleging that her son was the target of bullying because of his race.

“CS DOE is a 14-year-old African American student at Verdugo High School. He is a Ninth Grader,” reads a statement the plaintiff’s attorneys shared with California Black Media (CBM).

“Almost from the first day of class (in August 2024), CS DOE was targeted by Latino students who called him racial slurs, physically attacked him and threatened to stab him.”

The family’s identity has not yet been released to the public due to safety concerns, according to their attorneys Bradley C. Gage and Caree Harper. The student’s mother is identified only as A.O. in the complaint.

The first video, filmed in August, showed several non-Black students punching and kicking a Black student in a bathroom on campus while yelling racial slurs. The mother claims that the students who attacked her son were not punished, and the administration asked her to move her son to another school for his safety.

“They wanted him to leave the school without giving any disciplinary action towards those students,” said the student’s mother. “He’s not going anywhere. He’s going to finish. I wanted him to at least stay until the December winter break, and then I was going to transfer schools for him.”

Before she could enroll her son in a different school the attacks escalated.

CS DOE, a 14-year-old freshman, left the school but was followed by a car, according to Gage. Several individuals exited the vehicle, one with a “large butcher knife.” A fight ensued and two people were stabbed. The Black student was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon but was later released into his mother’s custody.

The high school freshmen is scheduled to appear in juvenile court on Feb. 1, but Harper says she will reach out to the District Attorney and make the case against charging the young man.

“His mama had to go find him because he was hiding and fleeing for his very life,” said Harper.

According to the boy’s mother, the young student is still traumatized and has not been able to return to the area because it remains unsafe. Racial slurs have also been spray painted on their home.

“I’m sad. I’m devastated, you know,” said the mother. “I still feel like they’re after him. I still feel like they can kill him, possibly.”

The LAUSD and principal of Verdugo High School did not respond to CBM’s requests for comment.

If you are – or someone you know is – has experienced a hate crime or hate incident, please visit CAvsHate.org for more information and to find out what you can do about it.