Chicago Tribune, Slate, NY Times

Steve Fiffer is a New York Times Bestselling Author. His latest Book is "It's in The Action": Memories of a Nonviolent Warrior, Rev C.T. Vivian's Memoir.

Reverend Vivian was a Major Force in the Fight for Civil Rights & Voters Rights in the Twentieth Century till he Passed July 17th, 2020.

Regardless of Social Status, Party Affiliation or Belief, Race: Libertarian, Democrat, Progressive or Republican or Other, All Americans Should Have the Right to Vote!

Senator Barack Obama, speaking at Selma's Brown Chapel on the March 2007, anniversary of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches, recognized Vivian in his opening remarks in the words of Martin L. King Jr. as "the greatest preacher to ever live."

Studying for the ministry at American Baptist Theological Seminary (now called American Baptist College) in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1959, Vivian met James Lawson, who was teaching Mohandas Gandhi's nonviolent direct action strategy to the Nashville Student Movement. Soon Lawson's students, including Diane Nash, Bernard Lafayette, James Bevel, John Lewis and others from American Baptist, Fisk University and Tennessee State University, organized a systematic nonviolent sit-in campaign at local lunch counters.

Vivian helped found the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference, and helped organize the first sit-ins in Nashville in 1960 and the first civil rights march in 1961. In 1961, Vivian participated in Freedom Rides. He worked alongside Martin Luther King Jr. as the national director of affiliates for the SCLC. During the summer following the Selma Voting Rights Movement, Vivian is perhaps best known for, Vivian challenged Sheriff Jim Clark on the steps of the courthouse in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 during a drive to promote Black people to register to vote.

"You can turn your back on me, but you cannot turn your back upon the idea of justice," Vivian said to Clark as reporters recorded the interaction. "You can turn your back now and you can keep the club in your hand, but you cannot beat down justice. And we will register to vote, because as citizens of these United States we have the right to do it."

Vivian conceived and directed an educational program, Vision, and put 702 Alabama students in college with scholarships (this program later became Upward Bound). His 1970 Black Power and the American Myth was the first book on the Civil Rights Movement by a member of Martin Luther King's staff.

On August 8, 2013, President Barack Obama named Vivian as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Steve's own Memoir is "Three Quarters, Two Dimes, and a Nickel". His work has appeared in Chicago Tribune. & Slate. He's also a Guggenheim Fellow

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