Rev. Dr. C.T. Vivian

While the Rev. Dr. C.T. Vivian’s life was full and prolific: he was a close advisor for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he provided civil rights counsel to five sitting U.S. Presidents, and founder of BASIC Diversity and C.T. Vivian Leadership Institute, Inc. — for us, he is personal, a parent of the People’s Institute.

When Rev. C.T. came to New Orleans, he liked to go to the same spot for a bowl of gumbo, he’d hang out at Dicky Chase. Everyone in the South, young and old, knew “CT.” Because not only did he lead the marches, he was one of the “Lieutenants” for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. When advising Dr. King, he and others would go ahead and scout out the city where Dr. Martin Luther King was heading to. They would take the heat, the pressure, the beatings as they gathered information to strategize about next steps. 

Rev. Dr. C.T. Vivian had his own undoing racism organization, where he confronted business owners and pushed to integrate. He worked closely with other organizers, such as Anne Braden. It was this relationship with Anne Braden that would create a connection with our co-founder, Ronald Chisom. 

Because of Ron’s relationship with Anne, he was invited to join the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. Their goal was to get political prisoners out of jail, and they did. Every month, organizers from all over the South would head to Birmingham, AL to meet. They’d talk about organizing people from the South, develop relationships with each other, strengthen their understanding by listening to each other. Angela Davis would sometimes visit from CA and join them. 

As Ron says, “At the time, I didn’t realize who I was in the room with. At first, it was another community meeting. A good community meeting, but I didn’t realize just what I was a part of.”

Ron became close with Rev. C.T., and Dr. Jim Dunn had his own relationship with him. It was in C.T.’s house in Atlanta where the idea of The People’s Institute took shape. Ron and Jim saw Rev. C.T. and Anne Braden as the parents of The People’s Institute: 

“We felt it was appropriate to have them engaged because they were doing the work before we ever were and knew more than we did. And we all kept organizing”

Certainly, Rev. Dr. C.T. Vivian’s commitment to non-violence and to racial justice was unwavering. He spent his whole life imagining, creating, mentoring and thinking strategically about how we could achieve racial justice.

He transitioned in 2020, at the age of 95 years old.  You can see a clip of Rev. C.T. Vivian attempting to register voters in Selma, AL here.