Staff Reporter
Photos by Clint Confehr
Nashville is considered the training ground for the peaceful methods of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and America’s Civil Rights Movement.
“I think of this city as where we trained people to understand,” the Rev. Dr. Rev. C.T. Vivian said Monday morning at the 13th Annual Fellowship Breakfast honoring the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. hosted by the Nashville law firm of Bone McAllester Norton.
Vivian, the breakfast’s keynote speaker, and others attending who remember the slain leader, acknowledged progress in the decades since King’s assassination in Memphis.
“None of us would be sitting here today if it had not been for Martin Luther King,” Vivian said in reference to the diverse crowd gathered at the Fellowship Breakfast. “King forced the most powerful nation in the world to say yes when it wanted to say no,” Vivian said.
The Civil Rights movement also “revived” the women’s movement, he said.
More than 670 people attended the continental breakfast in the Music City Center. Among the attendees were U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, Mayor Karl Dean, and dozens of elected officials. Vivian is a recent recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He is best known for his work with King as National Director of Affiliates and strategist for every Southern Christian Leadership Conference organization.
Dr. Rev. King was “America’s greatest social Strategist,” Vivian said. Stacey Garrett, chair of the Board of Directors of Bone McAllester Norton said, “We’re excited about how our Fellowship Breakfast has grown over the years reaching more and more people in our community. It’s a great opportunity to share and reflect on the messages of Dr. King and to keep those messages going forward.”