Dr. Bernard LaFayette, Jr. has been a Civil Rights Movement activist, minister, educator, lecturer and is an authority on the strategy for nonviolent social change. He co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960. He was a leader of the Nashville Movement in 1960, participated in the Freedom Rides of 1961 and the 1965 Selma Movement. He directed the Alabama Voter Registration Project in 1962, and was appointed National Program Administrator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and National Coordinator of the Poor People’s Campaign by Martin Luther King, Jr.
In addition, Dr. LaFayette served as Director of Peace and Justice in Latin America as Chairperson of the Consortium on Peace Research, Education and Development, Director of the PUSH Excel Institute; and minister of the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Tuskegee, Alabama.
An ordained minister, Dr. LaFayette earned his B.A. from the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee, and his Ed.M. and Ed.D. from Harvard University. He has served at Alabama State University, as Dean of the Graduate School and Continuing Education. He was also a principal of Tuskegee Institute High School in Tuskegee, Alabama and a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University.
His many publications include the Curriculum and Training Manual for the Martin Luther King, Jr.; Nonviolent Community Leadership Training Program; his doctoral thesis, Pedagogy for Peace and Nonviolence: Campus Ministries and Social Change in the ‘60s (Duke Divinity Review) and The Leaders Manual: A Structured Guide and Introduction to Kingian Nonviolence with David Jehnsen. Dr. LaFayette is the author of In Peace and Freedom, My Journey in Selma for which he won the Lillian Smith Book Award for 2015.
Dr. LaFayette is a former President of the American Baptist College of ABT Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee, a former Scholar in Residence at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, Georgia, and Pastor Emeritus of the Progressive Baptist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the Founder and National President of God-Parents Clubs, Inc., a national community based program aimed at preventing the systematic incarceration of young Black youth; a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and Founder of the Association for Kingian Nonviolence, Education and Training Works. LaFayette has traveled extensively inspiring the establishment of Kingian Nonviolence training institutes around the globe. Some countries include, Colombia, South Africa, Nigeria and in the Middle East.
Dr. LaFayette is currently Distinguished Senior Scholar-in-Residence Emeritus, at Candler School of Theology at Emory University and Senior Trainer for the Emory Center for the Advancement of Nonviolence. LaFayette also served as Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence and Director of the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies at the University of Rhode Island for eight years. He currently serves as honorary board chair for the Connecticut Center for Nonviolence. He continues to lead Kingian Nonviolence trainings nationally and internationally. A native of Tampa, Florida, Dr. LaFayette is married to the former Kate Bulls.