Civil Rights icons John Lewis and C. T. Vivian made their transition on the same day. While not enough can be said about both these extraordinary men, most people know more about Lewis than Vivian who came, along with Lewis, from the Nashville Student Movement, which produced many other Civil Rights greats, such as Diane Nash, Bernard Lafayette, James Bevel, and many others from the HBUCs of Fisk University and Tennessee State University. As such, Vivian was a Civil Rights Giant, and, of course, all of the tributes and articles about him will rightfully detail his work with SNCC and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) as King called him “the greatest preacher to ever live”. And, Vivian was also a Freedom Rider. Yet, among all of his many major accomplishments, one of his most important was the founding of Vision, which became Upward Bound, one of the greatest programs to bridge the gap of poverty and access to education for African Americans. (I spent one summer teaching in Upward Bound before teaching in the more advanced Tougaloo Jackson Heart Study Summer SLAM Program.) At its apex, probably twenty to thirty percent of HBCU students were products of Upward Bound as Upward Bound was facilitated mostly at or through HBCUs Although Upward Bound grew from Vivian’s work with the Freedom Schools of Freedom Summer and from his work during the Selma Voting Rights Movement, white Civil Rights worker Stan Salett is often given the sole credit for developing Upward Bound and Head Start, which is just another example of how history gets whitewashed or Elvis-ized. While Salett did a lot of great work, both Upward Bound and Head Start are direct products of Freedom Summer and the Freedom Schools. As Mississippi Civil Rights icon Hollis Watkins explains in his book, Brother Hollis: The Sankofa of a Movement Man:
Ironically, a major battle around the concept of “Black Power” was with the local Head Start Program, specifically the Child Development Group of Mississippi (CDGM). The model for Head Start grew from the Freedom Schools, which was about teaching people how to define and educate themselves. However, Head Start would never be allowed to implement the full curriculum of the Freedom Schools. Because Head Start was, essentially, a state agency, funded by the state, it was never controlled by those who held the best interest of the black community (246).
Thus, the work of people like Vivian is constantly erased and misappropriated by and to white folks. Moreover, this is the type of tangible Civil Rights work by folks like Vivian that doesn’t get glorified because it’s not sexy enough. Yet, without Upward Bound, tens of thousands of African Americans would not have attended college.
On a final and informal note, one of my favorite Vivian stories is of him being arrested during a mass protest. Of course, during the protest, angry white officers are arresting and manhandling the protestors, violently throwing them into the police van known as a paddy wagon. Because Vivian is standing there calmly, the officer roughly throws what he thinks is the last of the protestors into the wagon. As the officer is slamming the door shut, Vivian lightly taps the officer on the shoulder, the officer quickly turns to see who is tapping him on his shoulder, and Vivian says very politely, “Excuse me, officer, I’m with them.” Telling the story, Vivian then states, “Well, the officer was so bewildered and even amused that someone would essentially say to him, ‘You forgot to arrest me too,’ that the officer had to look away, compose himself from laughing, and then turn to me and say as angrily as he could muster, ‘Then, you get your ass in there too!’” I have no idea why I love that story. I just do. For more information about Vivian, y’all can read his autobiography, Black Power and the American Myth, which is the first book on the Civil Rights Movement by a member of King’s staff. Y’all, can also read Lydia Walker’s Challenge and Change: The Story of Civil Rights Activist C.T. Vivian and watch PBS’ The Healing Ministry of Dr. C. T. Vivian as well as watch the critically acclaimed Eyes on the Prize, in which Vivian is featured prominently.