"SNCC crossed Selma off its map after some initial scouting determined 'the white folks were too mean and the Black folks were too scared,' LaFayette said. But he insisted on trying anyway. Named director of the Alabama Voter Registration Campaign in 1963, LaFayette moved to the town and, with his former wife Colia Liddell, gradually built the leadership capacity of the local people, convincing them change was possible and creating momentum that could not be stopped."
"The many dangers LaFayette faced included an assassination attempt on the same night Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi, in what the FBI said was a conspiracy to kill civil rights workers. LaFayette was beaten outside his home before his assailant pointed a gun at him. His calls for help brought out a neighbor with a rifle. LaFayette found himself standing between the two men, asking his neighbor not to shoot."
"On March 7, 1965, the beating of future congressman John Lewis and voting rights marchers on Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge led the evening news, shocking the nation's conscience and pushing Congress to act. But two years before 'Bloody Sunday,' it was LaFayette who quietly set the stage for Selma and the advances in voting rights that would follow."
Bernard LaFayette, a civil rights pioneer and advance organizer, died at age 85 from a heart attack. As a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960, LaFayette directed Alabama's voter registration campaign starting in 1963. Despite SNCC initially abandoning Selma, believing local resistance too strong, LaFayette persisted in building local leadership capacity with his former wife Colia Liddell. His groundwork created the momentum that enabled the pivotal Selma campaign, culminating in the 1965 Voting Rights Act following the Bloody Sunday march. LaFayette endured significant dangers, including an assassination attempt and physical assault, yet maintained nonviolent principles throughout his activism.
Read at www.npr.org
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