In Peace and Freedom

October 1, 2013
A co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee tells the story of how a little town in central Alabama became the national stage for the movement that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. With the assistance of Johnson (Education/Univ. of Rhode Island), LaFayette (Scholar in Residence/Emory Univ. School of Theology) discusses how, when he volunteered to take on the job of organizing a voter registration drive in Selma in 1962, none of his colleagues in the civil rights movement thought he would succeed in his mission. They had just taken Selma off the scouting list and told him that "the white folks are too mean and the black folks too afraid." However, in his early 20s at the time, LaFayette was ready for the challenge. Trained in nonviolence, he had participated in lunch counter sit-ins and freedom rides on the buses that crossed the South. He bears witness to the impressive courage of the many other people who participated in the movement, and his story stands in stark contrast to the anger-fueled populism that plagues political movements today. It is a story of how people organized to accomplish things they didn't know they were capable of and how they overcame fear to peacefully oppose harassment, violence and even death threats. LaFayette began by learning about the area for which he was responsible--e.g., figuring out why the sidewalks had two different tiers and why some black barbers refused to cut the hair of other black men. Teaching others the methods he learned helped them find the courage to hold the line against state troopers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in early 1965. An inspiring story of the human qualities and sacrifices that helped bring about a world we sometimes take for granted.

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October 15, 2013

LaFayette (Candler Sch. of Theology, Emory Univ.) took part in Nashville lunch counter sit-ins and the Freedom Rides, but his greatest contribution to the civil rights movement was as the director of voter registration in Selma, AL. Originally, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, of which he was cofounder, decided against working in Selma because it was too dangerous. LaFayette insisted he wanted the challenge of registering African American voters there. His memoir details just what it took to get an African American registered to vote in a state where, in some counties, that hadn't happened in more than 50 years. He worked with other brave men and women, overcoming white and black leaders who did not like outsiders, and trained black residents to pass the arduous literacy test. The specter of violence and death hung over them. The project came to a head in 1965 when he, Martin Luther King Jr., and thousands of others marched from Selma to Montgomery, AL, in support of voting rights, and Congress passed the Voting Rights Act. Throughout, LaFayette expounds on the principles of nonviolence and how they helped the movement. VERDICT This book is for anyone interested in civil rights history, American history, or the philosophy of nonviolence. Recommended.--Jason Martin, Stetson Univ. Lib., DeLand, FL

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