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Giflpdnicn cnirt (ccnttf) ind other cMI HtaWppi during the 1941 Freedom Rides.
I Cornsinmai from page 6)
olence is just die opposite; it is very acme. We can't sim
ply be canoemed about what would happen to us if we
went m Colombo. We have to be concerned about what
would happen to the Colombian people if we didnt go."
Despair the dire situation, Lafayette says he never
feared far his life. "When you get at this level of nonvio
lence, four life is your least worry, accept you might not
get ail the work you want done,” he says. "But in com
parson to others. I’ve lrved a long time and I’ve gotten a
lot of work done. I feel pretty fulfilled, but there’s a lot
more work that needs to be done. That's die only fear"
His life mission of civil rights and justice has
thrust the Tampa, Fla., native into harm's way
numerous times. As a young man, he was one of
eight students who led the Nashville Movement to
desegregate the Tennessee capital in 1960. “Of all
the people in the movement, he was the easiest one
to underestimate,’’ says author David Halberstam,
who wrote of the civil rights movement in his
book, The Children. “He's a very quiet American
hero.”
Lafayette participated in the 1961 Freedom Rides,
which protested the South's segregation policies, and directed the 1962 Alabama Voter
Regatotion Project, which registered and mobilized black voters. Arrested 27 times and
repeatedly beaten, he was convinced he would probably have to give his life for his cause,
bur he was nor aftaid to get his hands ditty—-even bloody, as long as the blood was his
own. On June 12,1963, he was attacked by two Ku Klux Kkn members in Mississippi,
an asnult that was part of the same KKK conspiracy that claimed the life of civil rights
leader Medgar Ewas later that rughc.
“Life cannot be lived to the fullest until you press your spirit against those forces that
threaten life," he says. "The greatest danger is to learn to co-exist with evil and come co
the conclusion that there is nothing you can do about it We were more alive than we ever
were when eve were struggling in the movement and facing death.”
Page 8
'American Profile
“...if people feel
alienated and not a
pait of a community,
they have no sensitivity
or responsibly. When
they feel that way, they
haw no regard for any
pain or injury they
might inflict
on a pup''
ft 1
Lafayette chat* with University of Rhode hfand undents Erin Baxter (left) and Tracy jamtd*.
“You don't walk by when someone is being teased, and you treat people with friend
liness and you work to create the peaceful community that Dr. King believed in,”
Wildman adds. "They can problem solve and they feel empathy for others. It's a nice
way to form a community.”
Lafayette took a group of Wakefield srudents on a tour of the major Southern land
marks of the civil rights movement. “It was life-changing for everybody," Wildman says.
Four years ago, a student asked him if he had ever written a book on nonviolence for
children. “I said, ‘No, I don’t have time because I’m too busy,’” he says. '“lf you’d like
to write a book, I would be willing to be your free consultant.’” That book, tentatively
titled Peace Is Like Sunshine: Spread the Warmth, will be released this year.
“It’s absolutely fascinating what these young kids are able to figure out and think,”
Lafayette says. “They are uninhibited, so they are unlimited in their thinking. If you
ask them about a problem, they come up with five different solutions. I’m getting
material and learning from them.” w”
Beverly Keel is an editor for American Profile
in education in nonviolence
These days, Lafayette is focused on the future, so he's spend
ing a great deal of rime working with Rhode Island students
of all ages. ‘You have to put nonviolence courses in every
school,” he says. “That's going to reduce domestic violence and
police brutality and the number of people incarcerated.
“I ay to help children understand that to marginalize peo
ple in their class and to not include them is a form of violence,"
he says. “It’s also a security issue, because if people feel alienat
ed and not a part of a community, they have no sensitivity or
responsibility. When they feel that way, they have no regard
for any pain or injury they might inflict on a group."
He's training college students to teach nonviolence courses
in prisons, and the University of Rhode Island offers an on
campus course called Literature for Changing Lives for those
on court probation. He’s also training 200 Rhode Island
teachers so that they can pass along his philosophy of conflict
resolution to their students.
He meets monthly with students from Moses Brown, a
private Quaker school in Providence, and he's spent the last
four years working with students from Wakefield Elementary
School in Wakefield, RJ. (pop. 8,468).
“He brings his visions from the past to create hope for the
future," says Wakefield fifth-grade teacher Robin Wildman,
who also teaches nonviolence to other teachers. “He teaches
kids that they have a responsibility to stand up for justice, no
matter who it involves.