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MLK Commission of Mid-Michigan to celebrate 40th Annual Day of Celebration

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. next to a young Bernard LaFayette Jr. in an archival photo
Bernard LaFayette Jr. worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the Poor People's Campaign and other civil rights initiatives.

A civil rights icon and nonviolence activist is the guest speaker for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commission of Mid-Michigan's 40th Annual Day of Celebration luncheon.

Elaine Hardy chairs the commission. She says Dr. Bernard LaFayette Jr. is a civil rights legend.

“His civil rights history began in 1958 with the Montgomery bus boycott,” she said.

“He was a founding member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee with Diane Nash. He was a freedom rider with his dear friend Congressman John Lewis.”

Hardy calls the civil rights activist “one of those foot soldiers who is not widely reported on in media, but was there for every single moment of civil rights.”

Mugshot of Bernard LaFayette during the Freedom Rides
Civil Rights Movement Archive
Bernard LaFayette Jr. was arrested during the Freedom Rides in 1961.

In the PBS documentary Freedom Riders, he talked about his experience fighting for civil rights in the 1960s.

“Because of our training, we always took the position that when we were faced with an avalanche of violence, that we had to respond with a macro non-violence," he said in the film that first aired in 2011.

Eight Lansing-area businesses are donating more than $182,000 this year to support the commission’s work promoting equality and social justice.

The Day of Celebration Luncheon is scheduled for 11 a.m. on January 20 at the Lansing Center.

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