Veterans of the Civil Rights MovemenBCollier

When asked why he joined the civil rights movement Dr. Barnard Lafayette, who was raised in Tampa, Florida, replied, "When I finally got old enough to realize that segregation was destroying peoples lives, I decided to do something about it." It was that thought that helped Dr. Lafayette co-found the Students Nonviolent Coordination Committee in 1960. He was also a leader in Nashville Movement (1960), the Freedom Rides (1961), the Alabama Voter Registration Project (1962), and the Selma Movement (1965),

Lafayette participated in the lunch counter sit-ins in Nashville during the 1960s. By doing that and working with Dr. Martin Luther King and the Freedom Riders Lafayette developed an understanding of using nonviolence to achieve the goal of equality. Non-violence was a core part of SNCC and the Freedom Rides. He explained why taking the stand of non-violence was so important, "Non-violence is all about love and redemption. Love is more powerful that hate. All you have to do is keep on loving and don’t expect anything return."

Even today Lafayette is taking the message of non-violence to different groups. In June of 2001 he took twenty-seven fifth-graders from Wakefield Elementary School in Rhode Island to places that were of great importance to the Civil Rights Movement. Places such as where Rosa Parks was arrested, the Baptist church that was bombed killing four girls, and crossing the Selma Bridge. He also was just appointed to the Governor’s Commission on Race and Police and Community Relations in Rhode Island where he was a scholar-in-residence at the University. At the University of Rhode Island he was bringing the message of non-violence to the programs. Ever since he joined the Civil Rights Movement Lafayette has been bringing the message of non-violence to people by being a minister, educator, lecturer, and administrator.

Dr. Barnard Lafayette is an ordained minister who earned his B.A. from the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee. Lafayette also received his Ed. M. and Ed. D. from Harvard University.