C.T. Vivian Adds Presidential Medal of Freedom to a Lifetime of Activism

by | Nov 20, 2013 | Feature, Headline News |

The civil rights veteran started his social justice work in the 1940s, nonviolently protesting segregated lunch counters in Peoria, Ill., well before the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. started his. He became part of King’s executive staff at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta in the 1960s.

Now, as one of the last surviving members of a generation of civil rights icons, he has returned as SCLC president amid other projects, from chairing a bank to mentoring youth.

On Wednesday (Nov. 20), he joined 15 others — including former President Bill Clinton and media mogul Oprah Winfrey — in being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the president.

“The Rev. C.T. Vivian was a stalwart activist on the march toward racial equality. Whether at a lunch counter, on a Freedom Ride, or behind the bars of a prison cell, he was unafraid to take bold action in the face of fierce resistance,” according to the White House citation read before President Obama draped the red, white and blue medal around the neck of Cordy Tindell ‘C.T.’ Vivian.

In an interview, Vivian said he has collected “stacks” of awards over the years, but he hopes this one will help draw attention to the causes to which he has devoted his life.

“People will listen that wouldn’t otherwise listen and that’s what’s important,” he said. “If it doesn’t help you help somebody, then it might as well not be there.”

After the White House ceremony, he added: “It’s like the laying on of hands … when the nation says that you have served well.”

From his first “direct nonviolent action” in 1947, Vivian has been dedicated to nonviolence. “We hardly talk about it anymore,” he said, “but until we talk about it we can’t change the world.”

In Nashville, Tenn., Vivian worked closely with the Rev. James Lawson, a Methodist minister who trained him and others to resist people who opposed their desegregation efforts. Their work eventually led to the removal of “colored” and “white” signs above public drinking fountains.

“It was because of the effectiveness of our movement, and C.T. was one of our key pastors and key people,” said Lawson, who now lives in Los Angeles.

Vivian, then a pastor and editor for a Baptist Sunday School publisher, also was one of the first Freedom Riders to travel by bus in 1961 to Jackson, Miss., where he was arrested and beaten.

The incident that brought him international news coverage came in 1965 during a confrontation in front of a Selma, Ala., courthouse when Sheriff Jim Clark blocked civil rights activists’ attempts to register to vote. Vivian, who was struck and bloodied, did not back down, telling Clark: “If we’re wrong, why don’t you arrest us?”

“Many people did not have that kind of courage,” said the Rev. Gerald Durley, pastor emeritus of Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Vivian worships. “There were many with courage, but not the kind of courage that C.T Vivian demonstrated.”

Vivian now serves as the director of the Urban Theological Institute at Atlanta’s Interdenominational Theological Center, a consortium of African-American seminaries, and as board chairman of Capitol City Bank, a minority-owned bank with branches in eight locations in Georgia. Through his C.T. Vivian Leadership Institute, he fosters innovative leadership and career development for at-risk youth and college graduates.

“Dr. Vivian on numerous occasions has stated that he wants to have a ministry that deals with people where they are now versus dealing with the pie in the sky,” said George Andrews, the bank’s founder and former president.

But Vivian, who served for more than two decades on the staff of his Atlanta church, also has a reputation as a great preacher.

Joshua DuBois, the former special assistant to Obama, recalled being on the campaign trial in 2007 when Obama noticed Vivian sitting in the audience at Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Selma.

“He pointed him out and said, ‘Oh my goodness, there’s C.T. Vivian,’” DuBois said of Obama. “’That’s the man that Dr. King called the greatest preacher that ever lived.”

In February, Vivian and Durley are scheduled to visit a multicultural school outside Los Angeles, to discuss leadership development, the same skills he uses to mentor teenage boys in Atlanta every Saturday.

“I think that there are very few people who are 89 who are still out there moving at the speed of C.T. Vivian,” Durley said.

President Obama agreed Wednesday: “At 89 years old, Reverend Vivian is still out there, still in the action, pushing us closer to our founding ideals.”

The Rev. Bernard Lafayette, chairman of the SCLC, was Vivian’s cellmate when they were jailed during the Freedom Rides. They stayed up “half the night” encouraging each other by sharing puns.

“The most important thing that I learned from C.T. Vivian and Jim Lawson is that you can do something about the problem rather than just talk about how bad it was,” said Lafayette, who was schooled in the art of preaching by Vivian in the late ‘60s.

Lawson called Wednesday’s White House honor “a good step,” following on the heels of fellow civil rights activist Joseph Lowery receiving the same medal in 2009, the erection of the King Memorial on the National Mall and the placement of Rosa Parks’ statue in the U.S. Capitol.

“I think that the country makes a mistake in primarily medaling soldiers and not medaling citizens who reflect the best of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution,” Lawson said. “And C.T., I think, happens to be one of the finest.”

The Real “Race-Themed” Issue Behind “The Best Man Holiday”

by | Nov 19, 2013 | Entertainment, Headline News |

This past weekend I, like many other black people, rushed out to theatres to see “The Best Man Holiday.” We all waited 14 years since the release of the “Best Man” to see our favorite group of friends reunite and when it finally happened it was as if a decade and a half never passed. Morris Chestnut, Monica Calhoun, Nia Long, Taye Diggs, Sanaa Lathan, Harold Perineau, Regina Hall, Melissa DeSouza and Terrance Howard lit up the screen like human Christmas lights strewn together who never lost their shine with their “Good black don’t crack” beauty. Their “good black” didn’t crack and neither did the issues they had in the first movie but little did they know that the movie would present another issue.

As the movie’s stars lit up screens across the country, box office dollars rolled in and by Sunday the movie landed in the number two box office spot behind “Thor.” The film did better than expected, raking in $30.5 million—Hollywood insiders expected the “urban big chill/urban comedy of manners” to make approximately $20 million in the opening weekend. And there’s the rub. The implicit question behind predictions and expectations of the film’s success rests in the idea that a film featuring an all-black cast with the exception of Eddie Ciprian—who often felt like an afterthought rather than a character being built into the franchise–won’t do well. The predominance of one race—specifically African-Americans—in the film apparently makes it hard to sell to “mainstream” audiences. The same predominance of one race made it hard for USA Today writer Scott Bowles to categorize it as anything other than a race-themed movie–until he changed it moments after publishing the headline. Many discussions around Bowles’s gaffe have occurred thus I won’t seek to add to it, but what I do want to discuss is the real race-themed issue that surrounds the “The Best Man Holiday” and other black romantic comedies. “The Best Man Holiday” and similar films featuring a predominantly black cast are not race-themed movies but their existence presents a race-themed issue in terms of viewership. There is a disparity that exists between moviegoers who see those films—predominantly black audiences—and films of a similar nature with all-white casts—predominantly white but with a greater integration of non-white audience members. I want to discuss the possible reasons for the disparity and the possibility that we have segregated love in cinema making “black love” and “white love” a thing over making love a universal aspect of life.

Sitting in the theatre for the Friday night showing of “The Best Man Holiday” I was in a sea of blackness. Some may argue that my geographical location of Atlanta, Georgia had something to do with the demographics, but according to Universal Pictures, 87% of the film’s audience this past weekend, nationally, was African American. I didn’t see a drop of white in the theatre and this was nothing new. I saw “Baggage Claim” on opening weekend at a theatre in Orlando, Florida and I was in the same sea of blackness. As a matter of fact, for as long as I’ve supported black romantic comedies/dramas, I’ve been in a sea of blackness. Within the sea of blackness, 10% or less of the audience are non-black. This is different from your average white romantic comedy in which I’ve observed an integration of audiences. Films such as “Sex & the City”—both installments—come to mind as well as any of the romantic comedies starring Sandra Bullock, Kate Hudson, or Katherine Heigl just to name a few. While many might claim to love a good love story, research shows that some people don’t like love stories featuring an all black cast.

In a May 2011 study entitled, “The Role of Actors’ Race in White Audiences’ Selective Exposure to Movies,” Indiana University telecommunications professor Andrew Weaver conducted two experiments to see how the racial makeup of a cast could influence white audience’s selection of a film. The experiments found that “minority cast members” do lead white audiences to be less interested in certain films, particularly romantic comedies. It was found that race even played a role in white audience’s desire to see on-screen kisses. According to Weaver’s research, “The higher the percentage of black actors in the movie, the less interested white participants were in seeing the movie.” This was particularly the case for romantic comedies, while in the case of non-romantic comedies race doesn’t play a role in white audiences selective exposure to movies. (So it is ok to watch Denzel Washington play a bad cop in “Training Day” or a heroine kingpin in “American Gangster” or for Tyrese Gibson drive fast cars in “Fast & Furious” volumes 1-100?) Granted this research was done with white undergraduates at Indiana University but it is telling. It says something about the ethos of some white consumers and white Hollywood executives toward black people as they are portrayed in the media. Why is it preferable to watch black actors in non-romantic films? Is it easier to watch black people in period pieces re-enacting their lives as enslaved people and domestics a la “12 Years a Slave” and “The Butler” than it is to watch them in a movie primarily about the journey to love such as “Baggage Claim” or “The Best Man Holiday?” Is it difficult to watch a love story between two black people or an interracial couple because of black people’s embattled history? What does it mean to prefer watching the historical lived experience of black people and never want to journey with us to our current lived experience? Our current lived experience which redeems the stereotypical images and misconceptions about black people that pervade mainstream media and makes real the universal search for love and meaning in life.