HR0740 99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0740 LRB099 13961 MST 37965 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, Rev. Dr. Cordy Tindell Vivian was born in Booneville, Missouri on July 28, 1924; he and his family later moved to Macomb, where he graduated from high school in 1942; he enrolled in Western Illinois University before moving to Peoria; and

WHEREAS, C.T. Vivian participated in his first civil rights protest in 1947, successfully desegregating Peoria's lunch counters; he began preaching in Peoria before moving to Nashville, Tennessee in 1954 to study at the American Baptist Theological Seminary; during that time, he worked with many of the leaders of the civil rights movement and took part in leading 4,000 demonstrators in a march on Nashville's City Hall; and

WHEREAS, C.T. Vivian joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960, emerging as one the leaders of the Nashville sit-ins; he and other SNCC members traveled to Jackson, Mississippi to support the original Freedom Riders when they were met with violence; in 1961, he was appointed by Martin Luther King, Jr. as Director of Affiliates for the Southern Christian Leadership Council; in 1963, he helped lead the fight to desegregate Birmingham and, in 1965, he was an organizer of the voter registration drive in Selma, Alabama that became the catalyst for the 1965 Voting Rights Act; and

WHEREAS, C.T. Vivian returned to Illinois by 1966 and began helping to establish organizations to assist black children in their efforts to stay in school and attend college; he also worked with Jesse Jackson's Operation Breadbasket to push the city and labor unions to promote affirmative action in building trades; and

WHEREAS, Alter leaving Dr. King's executive staff, C.T. Vivian trained ministers and developed the urban curriculum for seminaries throughout the nation at the Urban Training Center in Chicago; he returned to the area of seminary education as the Dean of Divinity at Shaw University Divinity School, where he originated and acquired funding for an unprecedented national level program and the basis of his doctoral work, Seminary Without Walls; and

WHEREAS, C.T. Vivian has served on the boards of the Center for Democratic Renewal and the National Voting Rights Museum; he currently serves as Board Chair of BASIC Diversity, Inc., the nation's oldest diversity consulting firm; he has provided civil rights counsel to Presidents Johnson, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and Obama and he continues to lecture on racial justice and democracy throughout the world; and

WHEREAS, In November of 2013, C.T. Vivian was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom - the highest civilian honor from the United States government; the New School for Social Research named Dr. C.T. Vivian a " ... spiritual leader, apostle of social justice, strategist of the civil rights movement ... For decades he has been in the vanguard of the struggle for racial equality in America", as they presented him with one of his many honorary doctorates; he was featured throughout PBS's acclaimed documentary "Eyes On The Prize"; PBS later produced a full-length presentation, "The Healing Ministry of the Rev. Dr. C.T. Vivian"; he is also featured as both an activist and analyst in the series "People's Century" and in the Tom Brokaw documentary "King"; and

WHEREAS, C.T. Vivian and his wife have lived in Atlanta, Georgia for over 3 decades; he continues to work on behalf of the needy, most recently with the victims of Hurricane Katrina; he has 7 children; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we recognize the life of Rev. Dr. Cordy Tindell Vivian and declare July 28, 2016 as "C.T. Vivian Day" in the State of Illinois; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to C.T. Vivian as an expression of our esteem and respect.