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8 Leaders of Tomorrow! MARCH 1997 MBC Wolverine OBSERVER
on in the^Wome of the /ord
by Octavia Vivian
M
any have never
understood the
religious dynamics
behind the Non-Violent civil rights
movement. The movement was to
me, a culmination of millions of
prayers prayed by anguished black
people for deliverance. It was an act
of God that caused gentle Rosa
Parks to remain seated on a bus.
Her action led to the rise of a black
leader, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Repeatedly Coretta Scott King
has said she feels God was
preparing her to be Martin Luther
King’s helpmate when He was
preparing her late husband to lead
people to freedom. Repeatedly she
has said God brought her and
Martin together.
I too feel the part that my
husband, the Rev. C.T. Vivian, and
I have played was directed by the
hand of God. C.T. and I have always
felt that God brought us together.
Was it a coincidence that the same
month and the same year that
Martin and Coretta were meeting
in Boston C.T. and I were meeting
in Peoria, Illinois?
As I go back I have felt God was
directing me since I was four years
old. I went to church not because
my parents made me, but because
I liked to go. Sunday School was
insisted upon by my parents, Leslie
and Alvier Lee Geans, but I always
wanted to go to church. Long before
I joined church at the age of 17 I
remember walking home from
school with the feeling that God
was so close.
After finishing Pontiac Senior
High School in Pontiac, Michigan, in
1946 I was accepted to go to Wilber-
force University. Just before leaving
I received a letter informing me that
housing was not available to me and
therefore I could not come. I beat a
tearful path to the High School
principal’s office. He assured me he
would get me in school somewhere.
A week later I received a wire
telling me to report to Ypsilanti,
Michigan’s Michigan State Normal
College (now named Eastern
Michigan University) That was
one of the most significant things
that could have happened to me
because one day in a sociology class
my instructor was assigning theme
paper topics. He said, “Octavia
Geans?” I answered, “yes?”. He
simply stated the topic of my theme
“Am I Different?” I flushed, feeling
particularly singled out, being the
only Negro in the class.
In search of material I found the
article, “Color Complex” in a 1947
issue of Ebony. If my memory serves
me correctly it was the July issue.
That article did more than anything
else to prepare me for the life I was to
lead as the wife of a minister in the
midst of the Civil Rights Movement.
The “Color Complex” article dealt
with the feelings of inferiority that
Black youth felt about their color. I
faced the fact that I too possessed
these feelings of inferiority....
Through prayer and much more
reading in this area I was able to
rid myself of these feelings because
Mrs. Vivian - Worked at Morris Brown College from 1974 to 1980 in the Public Relations Office.
Mrs. Octavia Vivian
I saw myself and everyone else of
the same value in the eyes of God. I
saw my own worth....no less and no
more than anyone else....but equally
as important.
I finished college in 1950 and had
some difficulty in finding work...All
the time feeling there was
something I should be doing with
my life. I felt I should be doing
something but could not figure out
what it was. My cousin, Essie Tatum
(Mrs. Winfred Bruce) of Dayton
invited me to come to Dayton to look
for a job. April 1, 1951 I packed my
bag and left for Dayton.
I soon found myself working for
the Metropolitan Housing Authority
but I still felt I should be doing
something else. I was considering
entering the ministry and event
ually entering the WAC’s as a
chaplain.
On New Year’s Eve I had a date to
attend a party. I had bought a new
dress for the party and had looked
forward to the event. Everyone was
having a good time but in the midst
of the gaiety I suddenly thought to
myself, “Now there is something I
am supposed to be doing.” I wanted
to leave the party. I wanted to be
alone. At the same time I did not
want to be rude to my date. I stayed
until the New Year came in before
asking to be taken home. When I got
to the room I found Essie my room
mate was still out. I closed the door
and knelt beside the bed. I gave my
life completely to God asking him to
take me and use my life anyway He
saw fit. Within nine days. I had a
call from Henry Harper, Director or
the Carver Community Center,
Peoria, Illinois telling me of an
opening as Girl’s and Women’s Work
Director of the Center. I went for the
interview, was hired and on the job
by Feb. 4, 1952.
Being a new staff member of the
Community Center, a reception was
given in my honor in order that I
might meet some young people.
Among those who came was a young
man who was wearing the begin
nings of a beard. I still remember
how he was dressed....glen plaid
suit, white shirt and a sky-blue knit
tie. There was a certain air about
him that set him apart from
everyone else. I found myself
wondering what he did.
I mentioned to a group later in
the evening that my birthday (my
24th) would be coming up on the
23rd of February and that it was the
first time I would be away from both
family and friends.
Late afternoon of the 23rd, I was
sitting in the kitchen eating when
the doorbell rang. My landlady told
me, much to my surprise, that
someone was waiting to see me.
There stood the young man I
wondered about at the reception.
“Miss Geans” he began, “you said
you would be spending your first
birthday away from your family and
friends today and I was wandering
how you would like to go to a movie
this evening?” I had not recalled him
being in ear shot when I made the
remark. When I had gotten over
being overwhelmed with the fact
that he had remembered I
answered, “yes.” He came back to
pick me up at 7:30. Neither one of
us proposed. We just belonged
together. We were married a year
later on the anniversary of our first
date and on my 25th birthday, 1953.
Twenty months after our
marriage C.T. informed me he was
going into the ministry. I then gave
up my membership in the A.M.E.
Methodist Church and joined the
Baptist church to be with him.
(Another similarity...Coretta had
been Methodist and Martin and C.T.
Baptist).
C.T.’s desire was to go to New
York to Divinity School but I argued
he came from a predominantly
white community and had moved
in white circles in Macomb, Illinois.
I thought he projected a white image
more than a black one. I went on to
say if he pastored it would most
likely be in a Negro church and
therefore he should become more
Negro orientated. I suggested he
go to the American Baptist
Theological Seminary in Nashville
as the members of his church
wanted. He consented.
In 1958 C.T. became one of the
ministers to work in the Nashville,
Tennessee Sit-in Movement, truly
one of the greatest Non-Violent
movements in the South.
Out of the Nashville movement
came civil rights leaders who are
still active with the movement....
John Lewis, former head of SNCC;
James Bevel, Banard Lafayett,
Marion Berry, James Lawson and
C.T. Out of Nashville also grew
SNCC. Rev. James Lawson emerged
as projected? leader of Nashville.
Lawson knew and understood the
theory of Ghandi and interpreted
non-violence as a weapon to the
entire city and in workshops to
train people all over the South.
During the sit-ins there was prayer
around the clock. A group would
pray from 1 to 2 o’clock. Another
group 2 o’clock to 3 etc....As students
and ministers faced courts, every
Negro attorney in Nashville, at no
cost, came to the aid of those jailed.
People put up their homes for bonds.
Money was contributed freely.
It was the ministers from this
movement who took up the freedom
rides after the severe beating of
riders and burning of the buses in
Alabama in 1961. C.T. was on the
first bus of Freedom Riders to enter
Jackson, Mississippi, thus becoming
one of the first group of ministers in
the Western Hemisphere to be
arrested for challenging the evils of
segregation. The arrest itself was a
miracle. Those on the bus had
readied themselves for death....death
for freedom. The very nature of
Mississippi left no doubt in anyone’s
mind that the riders would not
escape physical harm. At best they
would be jailed. I prayed almost
every moment taking time out to try
to prepare my three oldest children
Alvier Denise, then 6, Cordy Jr. then
5, and Kira then 4. I tried to prepare
them for their father’s going to jail. I
tried to explain about slavery and
the long years of discrimination. I
told them their father had gone to
help white people to see Negroes
should be free. Besides the three
children mentioned I had a two year
old, Mark, a one year old Anita
Charisse and was in the early stages
of pregnancy with our 6th and last
child Albert. We knew the risks we
were running but felt this was what
God wanted of us. I had fought that
battle a short time before when I
took the easy way out and found no
peace of mind. James Lawson,
expelled from Vanderbilt University
for his part in the sit-ins, lived
across the street and had been
arrested. Cars moved about the
neighborhood with lights out. They
stopped several times and occupants
observed an old station wagon
belonging to a neighbor and which
greatly resembled ours. Neighbors
began to call me about the cars in
the neighborhood.
I became frightened for C.T. and
although warned many times by Jim
that we must not run away, I
panicked. Believing my phone to be
tapped I went across the hall to the
apartment of Dr. and Mrs. Earl Orr
and asked to use their phone. I
called a school mate of mine from
Pontiac who was working in
Nashville, Eddie Edwards, and
asked him to go by the church where
C.T. was meeting and get C.T. to
spend the night at his apartment. A
half hour later there was a knock at
the door. It was Eddie. He told me
he had parked his car some distance
away and had walked to our house.
He said he had talked to C.T. who
did not want to agree to not coming
home. Eddie said he asked C.T. to do
. it for me and finally C.T. gave in.
Not wanting anyone to know where
C.T. was I asked Eddie to call my
number when C.T. was safe in his
apartment and let the phone ring
twice and hang up. It seemed like an
eternity before the phone rang twice.
C.T. was safe but there was no peace
for me. I had run away. I had caused
C.T. to run away. I felt I had failed
God. I did not sleep that night. I
promised that night that I would
never interfere. I asked God’s
forgiveness and my fears abated.
At the time of the Freedom Ride
to Jackson, Mississippi, we were in
the process of leaving the Nashville
church and moving to the
Chattanooga, Tennessee church. I
was busy packing to pass the time
away while C.T. was in the Hinds
County Jail. News reached me that
C.T. had been beaten for not saying
“sir.” A member of the Nashville
Church, Mrs. Culous Hayes, offered
to keep the children while I went to