The death of civil rights icon C.T. Vivian, who worked alongside the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and later led the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, instantly generated comments and attention in the world of social media.
Vivian died at his Atlanta home of natural causes Friday morning. He was 95.
Rev. #CTVivian is gone to be with God. It is heaven’s gain&our loss. He was one of the tallest trees in the civil rights forest.He never stopped dreaming.He never stopped fighting. We are better because he came this way. He was one of my mentors. I miss him so much already. #RIP pic.twitter.com/5gTBSh1c5P
— Rev Jesse Jackson Sr (@RevJJackson) July 17, 2020
Wow. You gave so much to make us better. I’m grateful and I will miss you. #CTVivian pic.twitter.com/IGJx2lpuK2
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) July 17, 2020
My heart is so heavy. Mr. Vivian, you were a beautiful soul and will be greatly missed. R.I.H#RIPCTVivian#ctvivian pic.twitter.com/ueGvOzoflJ
— 🖤 Miss N. Pages 👩🏾💻 (@MissNPages) July 17, 2020
Vivian’s civil rights work stretched back more than six decades, to his first sit-in demonstrations in the 1940s in Peoria, Ill. He met King soon after the budding civil rights leader’s victory in the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott.
A tree has fallen, a lion has ceased to roar...Rest in power and in peace Rev. #CTVivian . We honor and salute you! pic.twitter.com/cYahOtAyV5
— Tiffani Patterson (@Tiffspeaks1971) July 17, 2020
Vivian helped organize the Freedom Rides to integrate buses across the South and trained waves of activists in non-violent protest. It was Vivian’s bold challenge of a segregationist sheriff while trying to register Black voters in Selma, Alabama, that sparked hundreds, then thousands, to march across the Edmund G. Pettus bridge.
#CTVivian #Legendary #Job well done #RIH
— Lisa Rayam (@LisaRayam) July 17, 2020
"He has always been one of the people who had the most insight, wisdom, integrity and dedication," said Andrew Young, who also worked alongside King.
###BREAKINGNEWS Civil Rights Icon Rev. C.T Vivian has passed at the age of 95. Rest Well King!!! An crown well deserved! #theepiphanysuite #revctvivian #ctvivian #civilrights #blacklivesmatter #sclc #leadership… https://t.co/nS0RlZJ3jI
— The Epiphany Suite (@epiphanysuite) July 17, 2020
President Barack Obama honored Vivian the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.
#RIP #CTVivian
— Anita Nelam (@AnitaNelam) July 17, 2020
You served well and you will be missed.https://t.co/oCXQaWySPt
The reverend had continued to advocate for justice and equality in recent years. Speaking with students in Tennessee 50 years after the Voting Rights Act was signed into law, he explained that the civil rights movement was effective because activists used strategies to make sure that their messages were amplified.
Civil Rights giant! RIP #CTVivian 🙏🏾😢 https://t.co/Q4kWsQAF9F
— Dimp (@authenticreel) July 17, 2020
"This is what made the movement; our voice was really heard. But it didn't happen by accident; we made certain it was heard," Vivian said.
This pic gets me every single time. RIP #CTVivian you fought the good fight for so long. Sending all the love to @AmbAndrewYoung the only surviving civil rights icon still with us. https://t.co/kZ3BRRVdlI
— Audrey Irvine (@audreycnn) July 17, 2020
»PHOTOS: C.T. Vivian, freedom fighter
Cordy Tindell Vivian was born July 28, 1924, in Howard County, Mo., but moved to Macomb, Ill., with his mother when he was still a young boy.
RIP to a giant.#CTVivian
— (((Aunt PithyPat))) (@YourVeganHO) July 17, 2020
C. T. Vivian - Wikipedia https://t.co/8H0I02pVca
As a young theology student at the American Baptist College in Nashville, Tenn., Vivian helped organize that city’s first sit-ins. Under King’s leadership at SCLC, Vivian was national director of affiliates, traveling around the South to register voters. In 1965 in Selma, he was met on the Dallas County courthouse by Sheriff Jim Clark, who listened as Vivian argued for voting rights, and then punched him in the mouth.

Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Vivian stood back up and kept talking as the cameras rolled before he was stitched up and jailed. His mistreatment, seen on national television, eventually drew thousands of protesters, whose determination to march from Selma to Montgomery pressured Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act later that year.
#CTVivian: “Leadership is found in the action to defeat that which would defeat you… You are made by the struggles you choose.” #RestInPower
— Barbara Wortman (@campbabs) July 17, 2020
Vivian continued to serve in the SCLC after King's assassination in 1968, and became its interim president in 2012, lending renewed credibility and a tangible link to the civil rights era after the SCLC stagnated for years due to financial mismanagement and infighting.
Saddened to learn of this news...he earned his wings. Rest in paradise #CTVivian. https://t.co/2FvsQiiEG1
— Motown Ms (@MotownMs) July 17, 2020
"There must always be the understanding of what Martin had in mind for this organization," Vivian said in a 2012 interview. "Nonviolent, direct action makes us successful. We learned how to solve social problems without violence. We cannot allow the nation or the world to ever forget that."
Vivian had a stroke about two months ago but seemed to recover, Rivers said. Then, "he just stopped eating," he said.
God bless C.T. Vivian's eternal freedom-fighting soul. 🙏🏿 #CTVivian https://t.co/dUHLrceDsO
— fafa (@fafa019) July 17, 2020
Rivers, 67, said he was 21 when he met Vivian at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Back then, he worked as an audio director when Vivian was the dean of the university's divinity school. The two remained close over the years and Rivers said he handled the business side of Vivian's work.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.