Vivian remembered as courageous, humble Civil Rights warrior
Source: AP
By JEFF MARTIN
ATLANTA (AP) — The nation paid its final respects Thursday to the Rev. C.T. Vivian, a pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement who helped end segregation across the South and left an abiding imprint on U.S. history.
Vivian, a close ally of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., was mourned by civil rights icons along with TV personality and author Oprah Winfrey, baseball legend Hank Aaron and others during a funeral at Providence Missionary Baptist Church in Atlanta. Vivian died Friday at age 95.
“C.T. was truly a remarkable man, a man whose physical courage was exceeded only by his moral courage, whose capacity for love overwhelmed incredible hatreds, whose faith and the power of nonviolence helped forever change our nation,” former Vice President Joe Biden said in a video tribute aired during the service.
“In Illinois, and in Tennessee and Florida, and Mississippi — in the north and in the south — CT was there fighting to turn us back toward justice,” Biden added.
Mourners march with the casket of The Rev. C.T. Vivian to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park during a memorial service for the Rev. Vivian, Wednesday, July 22, 2020, in Atlanta. Rev. Vivian, an early and key adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. who organized pivotal civil rights campaigns and spent decades advocating for justice and equality, died Friday at the age of 95. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
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