Civil rights hero Bernard Lafayette

This post is from a guest blogger, Harborista Jim Melson. Jim is founder and executive director of Cornelius Corps, an organization in Richmond, VA, committed to a shared journey of racial justice/reconciliation and spiritual formation.

As we come to the end of this Black History Month, I want to remind us that Black history is American history, that the contribution of Black Americans goes far beyond the few names that are most well-known and popular among white Americans.

With that in mind, I want to lift up the witness of Dr. Bernard Lafayette. His commitment to and practice of nonviolence were so profound that he was given the nickname “Little Gandhi” by others in the movement. He helped to organize many of the major campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement throughout the 1960s, including the Lunch Counter Sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, the Selma Campaign, the Chicago Campaign, and the Poor People’s Campaign. Lafayette was a close confidant of Dr. King and met with him the morning King was murdered on April 4, 1968. The details of his leadership extend far beyond what I can fit in this post. I will share just a couple examples that are representative of his witness.

One of the most famous places associated with the modern Civil Rights Movement is Selma, AL. Many people are aware of the campaign there in 1965 that included “Bloody Sunday,” when peaceful protestors crossing the Edmund Pettis Bridge were beaten by Alabama state troopers and local law enforcement officers. The Selma campaign played a major part in the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. By the time of these events in 1965, Bernard Lafayette had already been in Selma for three years as an organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) working to register Black people to vote in the face of ongoing threats and intimidation. On the same night that Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi (June 12, 1963), Lafayette was severely beaten by white supremacists in Selma. He continued his work there through the campaign of 1965.

Despite his widespread favorable reputation today, Dr. King was very unpopular during the last few years of his life for insisting on addressing what he called the interrelated “giant triplets of evil”: racism, poverty, and militarism. In 1966, the movement shifted its focus to Chicago, IL, in an effort to show the connection between racism and poverty—particularly related to housing—in the North. King chose Bernard Lafayette to help organize that campaign.

The last campaign that King envisioned was The Poor People’s Campaign, which planned to bring a racially diverse group of poor people from around the country to camp out in Washington, D.C., to dramatize the need for economic justice. Once again, King turned to Lafayette to help organize that campaign (which King did not live to see). Throughout all the years and events of his involvement in the movement, Bernard Lafayette remained committed to nonviolence—not merely as a tactic for social change, but as a way of life based on his faith in Jesus. In the years since, he has devoted his life to training both individuals and communities in nonviolence as a way of life.

A few years ago, my daughter Katie (who is engaged to Harbor co-pastor Jon’s sister) invited me to an interfaith event in Pittsburgh where Bernard Lafayette was the main speaker. I had the privilege of meeting him and having him sign his picture in a book about the Freedom Rides of 1961. Although I was already familiar with most of the history of his involvement in the movement, meeting him in person was a deeply meaningful experience that made the history come alive for me.

Lafayette is now 83 years old. What is true of Lafayette today is true of all the other surviving leaders of the modern Civil Rights Movement: their remaining time on earth is short, but their witness will live on. It is now up to us to share their stories and to take the baton to run our leg of the race for racial justice.

Jim

P.S. For those who would like to hear from Bernard Lafayette himself, here is a short video in which he speaks with a member of the US Army Jazz Ambassadors about the Freedom Rides of 1961.