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C T Vivian Author

C. T. VIVIAN (1924-2020), called "the greatest preacher who ever lived" by Dr. Martin Luther King, was an iconic civil rights leader known for his strong principle of nonviolent action. Born in Missouri in 1924, Vivian briefly lived in Illinois before moving to Nashville, where he attained a degree in theology and joined John Lewis, Diane Nash, and others to integrate the city in 1960. After being imprisoned and beaten during the Freedom Rides, he joined Dr. King at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and played leading roles in integration and voting rights efforts in Birmingham, St. Augustine, and Selma. C. T. Vivian was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 by President Barack Obama. STEVE FIFFER is an author and community activist whose distinguished career includes collaborations with the likes of Dr. Quentin Young, personal doctor to Martin Luther King Jr.; Robert Jordan, former ambassador to Saudi Arabia; and James A. Baker, former U.S. secretary of state. He is the co-author of Jimmie Lee and James: Two Lives, Two Deaths, and the Movement that Changed America, a Harlem Book Fair nonfiction finalist. He is also the cowriter of Southern Poverty Law Center cofounder Morris Dees’s two award-winning memoirs A Season for Justice and Hate on Trial. Fiffer lives in Evanston, Illinois, with his wife Sharon, a novelist. He currently serves on the advisory board of the Civic Leadership Foundation in Chicago, a nonprofit that serves underprivileged youth.