Thomasina W. Yearwood, President & CEO of The Thurgood Marshall Center Trust Pays Tribute To The Late Civil Rights Warrior, The Rev. C.t. Vivian 

WASHINGTON, DC (July 19, 2020) – Today, Thomasina W. Yearwood, President and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall Center Trust, Inc. (TMCT), offers her thoughts regarding the death of civil rights warrior, the Rev. C.T. Vivian.  

“Today, I join millions of others from across the nation and the world in mourning the loss of an ardent soldier and leader in the Civil Rights and Human Rights Movements – the Rev. C.T. Vivian. In his decades of service in the quest for justice for all, he inspired us all while putting his very life on the line to register African Americans to vote in Selma, Alabama and across the South, participating in his nonviolent protest, a lunch counter sit-in in Peoria, Illinois, in 1947.”

“Rev. Vivian’s vision commitment to the community echoed many of the goals of the TMCT including his creating a college readiness program which sought to ‘take care of the kids that were kicked out of school simply because they protested racism.’”

“In March 2007 on the anniversary of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches at the City’s Brown Chapel, President Barack Obama repeated the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who described his Civil Rights Movement lieutenant and friend as ‘the greatest preacher to ever live.’” 

“I remember the words of Rev. Vivian often recalled what he learned under Dr. King and the philosophy which he would also embrace: ‘There must always be the understanding of what Martin had in mind for this organization,’ Rev. Vivian said in 2012. ‘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.’”

“I express my sympathy to the family and loved ones of Rev. Vivian and thank them for sharing him with our community, nation and world. As the song reminds us, ‘Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.’ Rest in peace and well done.” 

Thomasina W. Yearwood is the President and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall Center Trust, Inc., an equal opportunity agency and nonprofit community organization. Our mission is to educate, encourage and empower children, youth and families to pursue equality, social and economic justice through provocative dialogue and collective action. Since its inception in 2000, the Thurgood Marshall Center for Service and Heritage, a historic landmark in the Nation’s Capital has been the co-location for eleven non-profits organizations that serve children, youth and families in the Shaw/Columbia Heights community specifically and the District of Columbia in general.