C. T. Vivian

C. T. Vivian

Template:TOCnestleft Rev. C. T. Vivian

National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee

Circa 1962, Vice Chairmen of the Communist Party USA front, National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee were:

• Dorothy Marshall, Coordinator
• Sylvia E. Crane, Organization Liaison, New York City, N.Y.
• Charles Jackson, East Coast Region
• Harry Barnard, Midwest Region
• Rev. Edward L. Peet, West Coast Region
• Carl Braden, Southern Region Committee
• John Lewis, Southern Region Committee
• Rev. C. T. Vivian, Southern Region Committee
• Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, Southern Region Committee

Chicago Freedom Movement

In 1966 Father William Hogan, a Communist Party USA supporter, served as recording secretary of the Coordinating Council of Community Organizations, the group that, together with Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, formed the Chicago Freedom Movement, which led the massive civil disobedience direct action campaign of the summer of 1966 in Chicago.

Hogan said that while King was "first among equals," the composition of the CFM staff was exceptional and reflected the scope of the movement: James Bevel, C. T. Vivian, Al Sampson, James Orange, Jesse Jackson and Andrew Young, who went on to become mayor of Atlanta and later U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

According to Hogan..."All were veterans of major battles in the South," he said, adding that key players from Chicago included Edwin Berry of the Urban League, Bob Lucas of CORE and Carl Fuqua of the NAACP.

"In addition to traditional civil rights organizations, CFM included representatives from the religious and liberal communities. Some of the unions affiliated with AFL-CIO Industrial Union Department provided staff assistance.

Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights

In 1970, the Board of Directors of the then Communist Party USA front Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights consisted of Rev. Frederic E. Sau, Harry Barnard, Boris Brail, Edward Carey, Milt Cohen, Ernest DeMaio ,Rev.William D. Faw, Richard Galloway, Prof. Charles H. George, Prof. Margaret Y. George, Ben Green, Pearl Hart, Dr. Hyman J. Hirshfield, David C. Jensen, Daniel Kaufman, Rev. S. Hunter Leggitt, Harry Mack, Rev. Daniel J. Malette, Lafayette Marsh, Rev. Francis J. McGrath, Akiro Makino , Ruth Muench, Isadore Pomerantz, Jesse Prosten, Don Rose, Norman Roth, Dr. Boris Rubenstein, Evelyn Salk, Thomas Slater, Walter Soroka, Jack Spiegel, Prof. William Starr, Lynward Stevenson, Edmonia Swanson, Gil Terry, Rev.C. T. Vivian, Otto Wander, Rabbi Burr Yampol, Dr. Quentin Young.

Defending Dissent

As of Oct 3 2009 C T Vivian was listed as a Board Member of Defending Dissent. Defending Dissent is made up of what used to be the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation. Vivian was also listed as a Vice-Chairperson of the Committee of the National Committee Against Repressive Legislation, circa 1965.

Tim Wheeler account

Communist Party USA member Tim Wheeler got to know Rev. Vivian in March 2005 when he was assigned by the People's Weekly World, to cover the Edmund Pettus Bridge Crossing Jubilee in Selma, Ala. This was a march commemorating the 40th anniversary of the brutal attack on voting rights marchers crossing that bridge on their way to the state capitol in Montgomery, Ala., to demand equal voting rights. Alabama state troopers brutally attacked the marchers on March 7, 1965, nearly clubbing to death John Lewis, D-Ga., then the national chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

That attack backfired badly on Alabama Gov. George Wallace. Scenes of the vicious attack were aired on network television, touching off nationwide outrage. A few months later, Congress approved and President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, clearing the way, ultimately, for thousands of African Americans to win election to public office, most notably President Obama.

Rev. Vivian was present at the opening shot of that struggle, leading a march Feb. 16, 1965, to the courthouse in the nearby town of Marion, seat of Perry County, to protest the arrest of Rev. James Orange, a leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The police had been instructed to target Rev. Vivian, also an SCLC leader. After the police assault, the marchers scattered. Marcher Jimmie Lee Jackson hid with his mother in a closed and darkened café. State Trooper James Fowler tracked Jackson down and shot him to death as Jackson attempted to cover his mother with his own body.

Outrage over the police murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson triggered the first attempt to march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Forty years later, March 5, 2005, I joined thousands of marchers peacefully marching across the bridge. The main demand of the march was renewal, without weakening amendments, of the Voting Rights Act. Specifically, the march demanded renewal of the "pre-clearance" clause. This was a section of the law that requires states with a history of voter discrimination to submit any changes in its voting procedures for review by the U.S. Justice Department. President George W. Bush and the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill had unleashed a "charm offensive" even as they maneuveured to undermine the Voting Rights Act. They had assigned a delegation led by Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., to join the Bridge Crossing Jubilee. But the marchers were not fooled.

When we reached the east end of the bridge, there was Rev. Vivian standing in the midst of the crowd, a look of joy on his face. I asked him for an interview. "Don't take voting rights for granted," he told me, referring to the theft in Florida of the 2000 presidential election. "We took it for granted that if we had the right to register and vote, our votes would be counted. We never imagined that 40 years later we would have to launch a whole new struggle. But we now know that many poor people never had their votes counted in the 2000 election or in the 2004 election. Given the character of the people now in power, we can have no confidence that our votes are being counted."

Rev. C. T. Vivian, right, poses with Tim Wheeler outside the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver

I interviewed Vivian by phone several times after that. In the summer of 2008, I was in Denver covering the Democratic National Convention that nominated Barack Obama for president. I was standing outside the Colorado Convention Center passing out copies of the People's Weekly World when who walked up but C. T. Vivian. We greeted each other warmly and I handed him a copy of the PWW. Someone with a camera was about to click our picture. "Wait a minute," he said, shifting the paper so it was plainly visible under his arm. That's my fondest memory of the Rev. C. T. Vivian, a real hero of the people's movement.

He is still in the thick of the fight for voting rights and for full equality even as the Republicans do all in their power to strip people of that vital tool of democracy. As he told me in 2005, "We have to march all over again."

Medal of Freedom

At a White House ceremony Nov. 20, 2013, President Barack Obama conferred the Presidential Medal of Freedom on the Rev. C. T. Vivian, one of the nation's staunchest fighters for racial equality and voting rights.

Vivian was one of 16 recipients of the award this past Wednesday, including former President Bill Clinton, and television personality Oprah Winfrey. Obama hailed Vivian for serving as one of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s closest advisers and for putting his life on the line in the struggle to end segregation.

References

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