Remembering Civil Rights Icon C.T. Vivian
Tonja Daniels | Photos courtesy of Tonja Daniels
“Everyone has a C.T. Vivian story,” expressed Reverend Gerald Durley for the homegoing celebration of one of the last of the civil rights icons. This sentiment was especially felt in the hometown where Dr. Vivian and my family grew up in Macomb, Illinois. To us the loss was personal as he was the last lifeline and connection to both sides of my paternal family, the Daniels’ and McGruders’ that he frequently broke bread among as a guest in the homes of my 21 great-aunts and uncles that he grew up with.
Macomb native/family member Tamarah Owens remembers, “Our elders made such a big fuss whenever he came to visit. He was more like family to all of us than anything. Whenever he was in town all the cousins would gather around as we soaked up knowledge from the Master Teacher. Who better to learn from than the man who was the brilliant strategist who marched alongside Dr. King? Not only did he teach us about Black history, but he taught us about our family history too, our lineage we never knew about since Vivian knew our great-grandparents most of us never met.”
Last Saturday the McGruders would have celebrated their 60th family reunion, and Owens recalled how Dr. Vivian stated that it was our late matriarch, Garnet (Curtis) McGruder who fought to integrate the Glenwood Pool (where the annual event is frequently held), so Black children could swim and fought for Black children to check out books at the Macomb High library which would later on be renamed in Dr. Vivian’s honor in 2015 as he was an avid reader and collector of over 6,000 books.
“Dr. Vivian’s late mother lived behind my parents and that’s how my dad and Vivian became lifelong friends as children of the Depression,” family member Tony Daniels recalls (his father Joe, Jr. and my grandfather Leroy were brothers). Humbled in nature, Dr. Vivian declined an invitation from President Barack Obama to attend a White House Correspondents Dinner in 2011 to pay respects to Uncle Joe instead. He also eulogized another lifelong friend and great-uncle, Willie Huston, decades prior.
Rev. Vivian was a Sunday school teacher at the 2nd Baptist Church in Macomb where he taught most of my great-aunts and uncles before he evolved into a legendary figure. It was at Mt. Calvary C.O.G.I.C. that my cousins and I were able to experience, as Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr., exclaimed, “The greatest pastor who ever lived,” whenever he was in town for several MLK tributes.
As a civil rights pioneer, Dr. Vivian was a heavy influence on my late grandfather Leroy Daniels, as he accompanied Vivian to Selma which would further lead to his decision to become President of the NAACP Branch in Macomb for over 30 years. When a scholarship fund at Dr. Vivian’s alma mater, Western Illinois University, was named after my grandfather, it was Dr. C.T. Vivian who gave the keynote address.
Macomb made sure to give Dr. Vivian his roses in 2015 when Dr. Vivian served as Grand Marshal for WIU’s Homecoming Parade as two streets and a library were named in his honor when he was 90 years old.
On July 26th, a memorial ceremony was held in Macomb at Vivian’s childhood home, to say farewell to our native son. Members of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, of which Vivian and Dr. King belonged to, performed an Omega service where all deceased Alpha brothers are transferred into an Omega chapter, consistent with the view that “once an Alpha, always an Alpha.”
Speaker Dr. J.Q. Adams remarked that the attendees sat on the “hallowed ground” of the formative years and maturation of a young C.T., of where it all began, and reflected on the biggest takeaways of Dr. Vivian’s wisdom as he told him in interviews: “I’ll never understand how Christians can be so cruel to Black people in the Bible belt. What Bible are they reading? Blacks have a condition, not a problem. Whites have a problem – racism – that creates our condition. People do not choose rebellion. Revolution is always an act that is forced upon them from self defense.”
The pillar of greatness that was Dr. C.T. Vivian laid the foundation for all of us in social justice. Had it not been for him neither my family nor I or anyone who calls themselves activists would be one today. The common theme that lived inside his veins when he challenged Sheriff Jim Clark and told Dr. Adams was: “You don’t know fear because of preparation. Because when you are prepared you know what to expect.” [In 1965, Clark famously blocked Vivian’s path and punched him in the face in front of rolling cameras as he led an SCLC group in Selma, Alabama who were attempting to register to vote.] As we all pick up his torch as Oprah eloquently stated from this “Great Tree” that has fallen, let us all remember that “we are better because he existed.”
