C.T. VIVIAN - Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient

C.T. Vivian was a prominent civil rights leader, minister, and close ally of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. Vivian helped lead the Nashville sit-ins, joined the Freedom Riders, and later served as the National Director of Affiliates for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Vivian became known for his powerful nonviolent leadership, including his historic confrontation with Sheriff Jim Clark during the Selma voting rights campaign. He later founded the C.T. Vivian Leadership Institute and was praised by Barack Obama as "the greatest preacher to ever live" and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

LEGACY

• Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Participated in the Freedom Riders who were civil rights activists that rode interstate buses into segregated Southern States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that ruled segregated public buses as unconstitutional
• Authored Black Power and the American Myth in 1970, the first Civil Rights Movement book written by a member of Martin Luther King Jr.'s staff
• Founded Black Action Strategies and Information Center and the C.T. Vivian Leadership Institute (CTLVI).
• Donated 6,000 volumes of books to the National Monuments Foundation largely about the black experience and written by black authors