Bernard LaFayette, a key figure in the civil rights movement who helped lay the groundwork for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, has died at the age of 85. His son, Bernard LaFayette III, confirmed that he died on Thursday morning from a heart attack.
LaFayette was instrumental in the voter registration campaign in Selma, Alabama, which culminated in the historic Voting Rights Act. He moved to Selma in 1963 as director of the Alabama voter registration campaign for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which he helped found in 1960. Despite initial fears that Selma was too dangerous, LaFayette worked with local residents to build momentum for change.
His efforts faced significant danger, including an assassination attempt on the same night Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi. LaFayette missed the infamous "Bloody Sunday" march in 1965, as he was working on a project in Chicago, but quickly organised support for the subsequent successful march from Selma to Montgomery.
Born in Tampa, Florida, LaFayette was inspired to fight for civil rights after witnessing his grandmother fall while trying to board a segregated trolley. He studied at the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, where he roomed with future congressman John Lewis and helped lead nonviolent protests that desegregated the city's downtown.
LaFayette later joined the Freedom Rides, was beaten in Montgomery and arrested in Jackson. He also worked with Martin Luther King Jr. on the Poor People's Campaign and was with King at the Lorraine Motel on the day of his assassination. After King's death, LaFayette dedicated his life to promoting nonviolence globally.
