The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Amid sorrow, speakers praise Vivian’s lessons
Civil rights leader lauded for love that ‘overwhelmed’ hate.
Former Vice President Joe Biden called the Rev. C.T. Vivian on Thursday, “a man whose physical courage was exceeded only by his moral courage.”
Media mogul Oprah Winfrey, referencing a poem by Maya Angelou, said “we are better because he existed.”
Those were a few of the testimonials, live and by video, at the funeral for Vivian, a civil rights icon and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient. He died July 17 at the age of 95.
The service at Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta
was open only to family and a few friends because of the coronavirus pandemic. Vivian was buried at Westview Cemetery.
Biden and Winfrey were joined by Henry and Billye Aaron, Bernard Lafayette, Andrew Young and Henrietta Antoine, in delivering remarks via prerecorded video.
Attending in person were Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, as well as the children of civil rights icons — Martin Luther King III, Michael Julian Bond and John-Miles Lewis.
“How do you adequately say goodbye to the greatest person you have ever known?” asked Vivian’s son, Al Vivian. “A man who has been your father, your mentor, your frat brother and still your friend, after being your boss? The man who bestowed on me my witty — my sons would say corny — sense of humor? No matter how long I love, no matter whatever I accomplish, the greatest thing I will ever be known for is the son of C.T. Vivian.”
Biden, the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president, said Vivian “didn’t waste a single one of the days that God granted him.”
“C.T. was truly a remarkable man … whose capacity for love overwhelmed incredible hatreds. Whose faith in the power of nonviolence helped forever change our nation,” Biden said. “The number of times he faced down being drowned, being beaten, being reviled, only to stand up straight as a ramrod, bloody but unbent, and declare the truth that he saw so clearly and say, ‘You cannot turn your back on the idea of justice.’”
Paintings of a smiling Vivian stood on the church’s altar and alongside his closed casket, which was covered with a large spray of flowers. As the Rev. Gerald Durley noted, everyone who spoke talked less about sorrow, and more about what Vivian taught them.
“C.T. was a good man,” Durley said. “And if I had to say five words about him, they would be: He had a good name. Now, keep his good name alive by going out and voting. That is what C.T. would want.”
Born in 1924 in Missouri, Vivian’s early work in civil rights started in 1947, when he helped integrate lunch counters in Peoria, Illinois. He was a member of the Nashville Student Movement, the Freedom Riders and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
In February 1965, while trying to register voters in Selma, Alabama, he was violently punched in the face by a segregationist sheriff. That punch broke the sheriff ’s hand, but Vivian rose from the blow to continue pressing his point without hitting back.
It signaled to America that the nonviolence practiced by civil rights workers was a viable strategy, because within four months Congress passed and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act.
In a video retrospective of his life, Vivian said in a clip from a 1990s appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, “Racism destroys more people psychologically and physically than any other factor in American society.”
Winfrey remembered how that show played out.
“What an impact he made on that audience, mostly white women. Gently yet passionately confronting them on their ignorances and their denial of racial inequality,” Winfrey said. “We spent several days filming, and it was a privilege to witness his wisdom, teaching and action. In his presence, we were always learning more about our country, ourselves and what it means to stand for what is right. He was a giant for justice.”
Baseball great Hank Aaron said: “I got to love him really, not know him, but love him for what he stood for and what he did and the things that he did.
“Sometimes you wonder what carried these civil rights guys on. I am so blessed to have known him.”
At one time, Aaron was one of five Black men in Atlanta who wore Presidential Medals of Freedom, along with Ambassador Andrew Young, the Rev. Joseph Lowery, Rep. John Lewis and Vivian.
In Vivian’s last days, Andrew Young said he visited him several times. Almost in awe, Young talked about how Vivian weighed the same as he did in college because he was such a fitness fanatic, a man who enjoyed tennis and walking around the campus of Morris Brown College.
At 95, Young said, Vivian was still strong and sharp, and although “his voice was weak, his thoughts were clear.”
“He was always a pastor. He was always a preacher and a good one. His motivation was always spiritual. He didn’t want attention. He didn’t want money,” Young said.
“He only wanted to do God’s will and bring out the best in these United States of America and its people.”