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Another Civil Rights Warrior Has Quietly Left Us
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Another Civil Rights Warrior Has Quietly Left Us
Crystal Drake09 March 2026
2 minute read
Contact: Crystal Drake, Office of Strategic Communications
(L-R) Atty. Fred Gray, Dr. Bernard Lafayette Jr, Dr. Mark A. Brown, and (seated) Ambassador Andrew Young
Tuskegee University mourns the passing of Dr. Bernard Lafayette Jr., a towering yet often unsung leader of the Civil Rights Movement. While perhaps not as widely known as some of his contemporaries, Dr. Lafayette was no less critical to the cause—working, marching, and organizing alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ambassador Andrew Young, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Rev. Jesse Jackson, and many others who helped shape our nation’s conscience.
Just over a year ago, First Lady Gwen Brown and I were honored to host Dr. Lafayette for dinner, joined by Ambassador Andrew Young and legendary civil rights attorney Fred Gray. We knew then that we were in the presence of giants. As they shared their stories, they reminded us once again of the outsized role Mother Tuskegee has played in the long and ongoing struggle for justice, equity, and human dignity.
Ambassador Young told a group of students gathered for his talk in November of 2024 that he wound up in Tuskegee initially because his vet told him the best place to treat his dog was the TU Vet hospital. It gave him an opportunity to visit another civil right leader, minister and Tuskegee resident, Dr. Bernard LaFayette Jr., a co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
“I feel like I’m coming home,” Young said. “Most of my growing up was along Highway 80, I was following LaFayette.”
As Dr. Lafayette will be eulogized in the Tuskegee Chapel at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 22, we reflect not only on his life, but on our responsibility. Let us not grow complacent in the continuing work to ensure equity and humanity in how we treat one another. Let us never assume that education, voting rights, or even freedom of assembly were birthrights in this country. They were secured through sacrifice—by people like Dr. Lafayette—who fought on behalf of generations they would never meet.
As a student of the American Baptist Theological Seminary, he became involved in the student-led Civil Rights Movement and was a founding participant in the Nashville Student Movement, which organized nonviolent protests in desegregated Nashville.
He participated in historic Freedom Rides organized by the Congress of Racial Equality and in 1962 helped launch early grassroots voter registration efforts in Selma. It was in Selma where he was brutally beaten, but continued organizing and training local residents in nonviolence.
His early organizing helped build the foundation for the Selma voting rights campaign led by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The Selma movement culminated in the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, including Bloody Sunday, which drew national attention to voter suppression.
He was a global educator on nonviolence and conflict resolution, including serving as director of the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies.
We celebrate these warriors as they take their well‑deserved rest. And importantly, we must joyfully grab the baton and run our leg of this never‑ending race for equality.
