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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.