JOIN US FOR THE 2018 LTD BANQUET FEATURING GUEST SPEAKER
DR. BERNARD LAFAYETTE, JR.
DR. BERNARD LAFAYETTE, JR.
Twenty-year-old Bernard Lafayette, Jr. hailed from Tampa, Florida and was enrolled as an undergraduate at Nashville's American Baptist Theological Seminary. A veteran of the Nashville sit-ins, Lafayette had already staged a successful impromptu Freedom Ride with his close friend and fellow student activist John Lewis in 1959, while traveling home for Christmas break, when they decided to exercise their rights as interstate passengers by sitting in the front of a bus from Nashville, TN to Birmingham, AL. As part of the May 17th Nashville Student Movement Ride, Lafayette served jail time in Birmingham, riots and fire bombings in Montgomery, AL, and an arrest in Jackson, Mississippi. He also served jail time at Parchman State Prison Farm in June 1961.
After the end of the Freedom Riders campaign, Bernard Lafayette worked on voting rights and helped to coordinate the 1968 Poor Peoples Campaign.
He completed a Doctorate in Education at Harvard University and for several years was the Director of the Center for Non-violence and Peace Studies at the University of Rhode Island. He currently teaches at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and conducts non-violent workshops worldwide.
After the end of the Freedom Riders campaign, Bernard Lafayette worked on voting rights and helped to coordinate the 1968 Poor Peoples Campaign.
He completed a Doctorate in Education at Harvard University and for several years was the Director of the Center for Non-violence and Peace Studies at the University of Rhode Island. He currently teaches at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia and conducts non-violent workshops worldwide.