Rev. C.T. Vivian, Longtime Civil Rights Activist, Dies at 95

(RNS) — The Rev. C.T. Vivian, a minister and advocate for civil rights who worked with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died Friday (July 17) in Atlanta.

Cordy Tindell “C.T.” Vivian was 95. His daughter, Denise Morse, confirmed his death, describing him to Atlanta TV station 11Alive as “one of the most wonderful men who ever walked the earth.”

He died of natural causes, business partner and friend Don Rivers told the Associated Press.

Vivian’s social justice work preceded King’s, as the Missouri native nonviolently and successfully protested segregated lunch counters in Peoria, Illinois, in 1947. He later became part of King’s executive staff at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta. 

Late in life, Vivian continued to contribute to the civil rights cause, serving in his late 80s as the president of the SCLC. 

In between his times at that civil rights organization, Vivian was active on issues of equality for decades, on the ground in marches and in lecture halls teaching about democracy and racial justice.

Vivian was honored in 2013 at age 89 with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, alongside media mogul Oprah Winfrey and former President Bill Clinton.

“The Rev. C.T. Vivian was a stalwart activist on the march toward racial equality,’’ says the White House citation read before President Barack Obama bestowed the medal on Vivian. “Whether at a lunch counter, on a…