An Alabama publisher has released the memoir of the late civil rights leader C.T. Vivian of Atlanta, months after his death.
The Montgomery-based NewSouth Books said “It’s in the Action: Memories of a Nonviolent Warrior” is now available. Vivian wrote the 224-page book with Steve Fiffer before his death last year.
Vivian began organizing sit-ins against segregation in the 1940s in Illinois and later joined forces with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who rose to prominence while leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and 1956.
In 1965, Vivian led dozens of marchers to a courthouse in Selma, where he was punched by then-Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark. News coverage of the assault helped turn a local registration drive into a national issue.
Vivian died in July at the age of 95. He was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.
Credit: AJC
The book includes a foreword by former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young, who worked with Vivian in the civil rights movement.
“We’re blessed to have It’s in the Action—which while certainly chronicling C.T.’s actions in the movement also offers his thoughts on those actions,” Young writes.
Born in Missouri, the reverend’s life weaves from Nashville to Atlanta, Chicago to St. Augustine, Birmingham to Peoria, Selma to Chattanooga.
Vivian worked alongside and even sharpened the most significant figures, including John Lewis, who also died last year. Vivian founded and directed multiple organizations, creating contributions and waves that we’re still experiencing today. The text recalls much of his life of faith and nonviolence.
Fiffer is an author, community activist and co-author of “Jimmie Lee and James: Two Lives, Two Deaths, and the Movement that Changed America,” a Harlem Book Fair nonfiction finalist. He currently serves on the advisory board of the Civic Leadership Foundation in Chicago, a nonprofit that serves underprivileged youth.
