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Family and friends of the late C.T. Vivian follow his casket down Piedmont Avenue in Atlanta.
Credit: Stephen Fowler | GPB News
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C.T. Vivian's Legacy Remembered At Georgia State Capitol: 'He Paved The Way'
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As the final instructions were given about the afternoon procession for the late C.T. Vivian, the first Black male civilian to lie in state in Georgia's Capitol rotunda, a spontaneous eruption of joyful song emerged from the civil rights icon's family.
"Ain't gonna let nobody turn me 'round, I'm gonna keep on walking, keep on talking, marching on to freedom land," they sang, one of many freedom songs that filled the air in the 1960s when Vivian, Martin Luther King, Jr. and so many other Black activists fought for equality.
After a public viewing and ceremony with Gov. Brian Kemp, several Black state lawmakers and family, Vivian's casket was led in an open carriage through downtown Atlanta before stopping at the tomb of King, a close friend and ally in a lifetime of action against racial inequality.
"During one of the most turbulent times in our nation’s history, C.T. Vivian was steadfast and calm, grounded in the knowledge that he fought for something much bigger than the obstacles in front of him," Kemp said.
While not as well-known as King or Rep. John Lewis, who died the same day as Vivian last Friday, the reverend was an integral linchpin in the civil rights movement, organizing sit-ins and demonstrations from Peoria, Illinois, to Nashville, Tennessee, to Selma, Alabama, where he was sucker-punched by a sheriff while calling for voting rights for Black residents.
That's something state Rep. Calvin Smyre (D-Columbus) said is important for the country to acknowledge more than 50 years later.
"We owe a lot to C.T. Vivian because he paved the way," Smyre, the longest-serving lawmaker in the Georgia House said. "He laid the highway for us to be able to travel and to be able to be involved in this issue we call public policy."
Rep. Vernon Jones (D-Lithonia) said seeing the legendary leader lie in state at the Capitol says a lot about how far Georgia has come. In 1968, then-Gov. Lester Maddox refused to attend the funeral for King and denied him the honor of lying in state in the rotunda.
"There would be no Obama had not been for C.T. Vivian, there would be no Black female congresspersons had it not been for C.T. Vivian, so his legacy will live forever," Jones said.
The Willie A. Watkins Funeral Home handled arrangements for Vivian, including a horse-drawn carriage processional from the rotunda to the King memorial. Along the way, pallbearers stopped at a portrait of King and a statue of the assassinated preacher on the Capitol grounds.
As the family processed down Piedmont Ave., Darrell E. Watkins paused at the intersection of Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr., stood from the perch of the carriage, removed his top hat and paused for a moment of silence under a giant American flag suspended by two fire trucks. Later, the procession stopped outside the Southern Christian Leadership Conference building on Auburn Ave., honoring Vivian's work with the SCLC as the national director of affiliates beginning in 1963.
Hundreds of mourners lined the streets outside of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park, where Vivian's casket was brought near the flowing water that surrounds the tomb of King and his wife, Coretta Scott King.
As the casket, family and friends passed the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, a refrain of "Oh, Freedom" echoed down the street before Demetrius Myatt, Vivian's godson, delivered a prayer.
"Sixty years later, we're still fighting, still marching for peace, for justice in a nonviolent way," he said. "Let us take the mantle, let us take this torch, and let us keep fighting, let us keep marching until justice rains down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."
The reverend's son, Al Vivian, said at the Capitol ceremony that the best way to honor his father's legacy was to vote and also continue to take up the mantle of fighting for justice.
"We have to learn to love one another as God has loved us, across all our differences," Al Vivian said. "We need to live out the history for my father and for John Lewis."
Lewis' family said they would not announce funeral plans for the late congressman until after Vivian's funeral Thursday out of respect.
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