The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which has gone through a period of instability at the top for nearly a decade, saw another change in leadership Friday.
Isaac Farris, the ninth president of the Atlanta-based organization founded 55 years ago by his uncle, Martin Luther King Jr., is out. He had been on the job less than a year.
The Rev. C.T. Vivian, an 87-year-old civil rights veteran, now takes over as the interim president of the SCLC, becoming the group's sixth leader since 2004.
During a Friday news conference to announce the changes, the SCLC's chairman, the Rev. Bernard LaFayette Jr., said simply that Farris was "no longer president" and "that the transition would be in an orderly fashion."
LaFayette was vague about whether Farris was fired or quit, although the president's role was hotly debated earlier this week at a national board meeting. LaFayette said it was possible Farris could return to serve the organization in another capacity.
Farris, the son of King's sister, Christine King Farris, was noticeably absent. Calls to Farris were not returned.
"He was burdened with other responsibilities," LaFayette said. "He has given us a good portion of his time. He gave us all he could give, and we respect the fact that he gave the best that he could."
Vivian stressed that his tenure would be short -- presumably until a new president is announced at the organization's national convention in July.
"Hopefully, I will be back as vice president or another task soon," Vivian said. "We need a young president to meet the rigors of time. Our nation needs a nonviolent movement to speak to the issues and organize people around them."
Vivian said he already has a short list of at least two possible candidates that the organization should consider for the presidency.
"There are so many things going on in the country that intelligent people are concerned about," Vivian said. "When you start talking, young people will be here."
LaFayette said a national search committee will be formed next week to fill the position once held by King and other civil rights icons such as the Revs. Ralph David Abernathy and Joseph Lowery.
"We have gone through so many changes," LaFayette said. "Now we are going to huddle and find out what we need to put in place for a search."
Vivian’s return to leadership within the SCLC started in August, when he was appointed vice president of the organization under Farris, who had taken over as president after the death of the Rev. Howard Creecy Jr.
At 87, Vivian is the oldest president in the history of the organization. He is no stranger to civil rights work, having met King soon after his victory in the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. Vivian became an active member of the fledgling SCLC a few years later, serving as national director of affiliates.
One of his defining moments came in February 1965 when he attempted to register black voters on the courthouse steps in Selma, Ala. He was confronted by Sheriff Jim Clark.
In front of television cameras, Vivian told Clark that they were willing to be beaten for democracy and “you people beat people bloody in order that they will not have the privilege to vote.”
In what became one of the most significant images of the movement, Clark punched Vivian in the mouth.
After King's death in 1968, Vivian continued to fight for equality and diversity, including serving on the SCLC's board of directors.
But at 87, observers wonder whether the move to appoint the respected, yet seasoned Vivian is a desperate grasp at something that no longer exists. In 2004, the organization tapped a Vivian contemporary, the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, for the position.
Shuttlesworth, who was a towering figuring during the civil rights movement, was 82 years old at the time and never jelled with the organization and board. Before quitting after less than a year, he all but declared the organization dead.
David Garrow, whose book, "Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference" -- which won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Biography -- said he is a fan of Vivian's, but he could not understand the decision to elevate him to president, even in the interim.
"This certainly qualifies as ‘back to the past.' I've never been a fan of Isaac, so I shed no tears there," Garrow said. "But this is just turmoil upon turmoil, especially when one asks an 87-year-old to be president or CEO of anything."
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