Beautiful Are the Feet
A Tribute to Champions of Justice
Vivian, Lewis and Mandela
“And how can the message be proclaimed if the messengers are not sent out? As the scripture says, ‘How wonderful is the coming of messengers who bring good news!’”
This past week, our world lost three champions of social justice: The Rev. Cordy Tindell (C.T.) Vivian, human rights advocate and lieutenant advisor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Representative John Robert Lewis, United States Congressman and former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) chairman; and Zindziswa (Zindi) Mandela, a South African diplomat and poet who was also the daughter of anti-apartheid icons, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela OLS MP and President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.
The Rev. Cordy Tindell (C.T.) Vivian (1924 – 2020) served as a leader of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) alongside The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Appointed to Rev. Martin Lutheran King Jr’s executive staff in 1963, Vivian was commissioned to Selma, Alabama to lead the protests there for voting rights. Vivian was a champion of non-violence despite being racially profiled and attacked by police during peaceful protest. Following one noted attack, he was quoted by Atlanta Journal-Constitution as saying, “I got down on my knees and said, ‘Thank you, Lord’ — not because I was alive, but because I had done what I should do, and I’d done it well. Even when I got knocked down, I stood back up. I’d stood up to the powers that be, and I did it nonviolently.”
He was the “greatest preacher I ever heard” according to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Vivian went on to start Vision, a program to send Alabama students to college, which evolved into Upward Bound. He also helped found the Black Action Strategies and Information Center, the Center for Democratic Renewal, and the Black-owned Capitol City Bank and Trust Co. In 2013, Vivian was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.
United States Congressman, John Robert Lewis (1940 – 2020) fought for social justice for six decades. During the Civil Rights Movement, Lewis served as part of the Rev. Martin Luther King’s executive staff alongside the Rev. C.T. Vivian. Representing the state of Georgia, Mr. Lewis served as a fiercely independent Democratic voice in the U.S. House of Representatives and was described as “the conscience of Congress” by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A notable slogan during his campaign was, “The hands that once picked cotton can now pick their elected officials.”
Lewis began his campaigning career as a leader of the Nashville Student Movement in Tennessee and as one of the original Freedom Riders. He went on to be among the founders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Becoming chair of SNCC in 1963 made Lewis one of the “big six” organizers of the March on Washington, where King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. In 1966, Lewis became chair of the Voter Education Project, aimed at registering minority voters. In 1977, Lewis accepted a role in the Carter administration’s Action program, uniting a number of volunteer schemes including Vista, the domestic version of the Peace Corps. In 1981, Lewis won a seat on the Atlanta City Council and, in 1986, became a US Congressional Representative. Lewis continued to serve in that role for 34 years before succumbing to pancreatic cancer at the age of 80.
Zindziswa (Zindi) Mandela (1961 – 2020) was serving as South Africa’s ambassador to Denmark at the time of her death. State television South African Broadcasting Corporation has reported that Mandela died at a Johannesburg hospital early Monday morning. The daughter of anti-apartheid revolutionaries and trailblazers President Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Ambassador Zindi Mandela was a respected poet and executive. She is the author of the poetry collection Black as I Am (1978). She also served as stand-in First Lady of South Africa from 1996 to 1998.
The Mandelas' daughter came to international prominence in 1985, when the white minority government offered to release President Mandela from prison if he denounced violence perpetrated by the Africa National Congress, against apartheid, the racist and inhumane system of racial discrimination enforced in South Africa at that time. Ambassador Mandela read her father’s letter rejecting the offer at a public meeting that was broadcast around the world. She remained a steadfast advocate of reparations until her death.
Beautiful are the feet of these giants with legacies that transcend generations.
May they rest in power.
Asé (Let it be so.)
Amen.