“The thing that made us strong was our ability to resist negativity,” a Civil Rights activist and close advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr. said last Thursday night during his speech. “Tonight is a great opportunity for us to have a dialogue,” Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Jr. said to the diverse crowd of both age and race.
The speech took place at the Steidinger Auditorium, located at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg campus.
Lafayette during his speech
The main message Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Jr. conveyed to his audience was the effectiveness of the non-violent approach. This approach is something he mastered during his many sit-ins in the 1960s, and something he frequently teaches workshops on.
“The non-violent approach is to win people over…don’t you ever give up on people,” said Lafayette. He then came up with a metaphor that explained why you should always choose non-violence over violence.
“You get a crowbar and you slowly pry [the window of the bus] open. You don’t burn the bus down… Retaliation is a weakness, not a strength,” said Lafayette. Every audience member quietly nodded their heads in agreeance to this statement.
Lafayette then went on to talk about his first sit-in which ocurred when he was only seven years old. He was at a restaurant waiting for ten cups of coffee, so he decided to sit down at the bar. “[The owner] saw in my eyes no intention to move. He wanted my business? He had to act like a businessman.” Lafayette got the coffee.
Lafayette to the right of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Lafayette also talked about how he discovered that Martin Luther King, Jr. had died: a story that had the audience captivated. Lafayette and King were together hours before King was assassinated.
King had some last minute things to do before a press conference that they both were going to attend, so he told Lafayette that he would meet up with him later. Lafayette was at the airport when he heard that King had been shot. Lafayette ran over to the nearest telephone and while he was waiting for his friend to pick up, he saw a United Press International reporter breakdown in tears. “That’s how I knew that he had died,” Lafayette softly said to the quiet audience.
On his idea of how to unify our seemingly divided country right now, Lafayette reminded the audience of the importance of loving and accepting one another no matter what. “We must be broad enough to accept people in spite of their differences…never forget that people are human beings. We’re all here for a purpose,” said Lafayette.
Lafayette standing next to his mugshot of when he was arrested for peacefully protesting
In regard to how he deals with people he doesn’t agree with, Lafayette says that we cannot distance ourselves from our opponents, but rather get even closer to them. “Show some strong visibility,” urged Lafayette, “…but don’t waste your time getting angry and upset, because you’ll end up like them.”
The most powerful moment of the night was a metaphor Lafayette made about his journey with the Civil Rights movement and his lifetime dedication with teaching people to choose love over hate.
“When I look in the rearview mirror of my car, I realize that I’ve come more distances than I have to go,” Lafayette proudly said with a smile on his face. The crowd, overcome with emotion, broke into a roaring applause before giving Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Jr. a standing ovation.
HCXOXO,
Kelli Carmack
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