TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on Mar 6, 2026

Bernard LaFayette, a leader in the Civil Rights Movement, died March 5 at age 85. He came from Florida to Nashville in 1958 to study at American Baptist College, then the American Baptist Theological Seminary. LaFayette co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960 and under his leadership, Nashville became the first Southern city to desegregate public spaces. Lafayette and other civil rights icons staged their first sit-in at Harveys Department Store in downtown Nashville. The sit-in movement grew, and the first large-scale effort happened Feb. 13, 1960, at Woolworths, S.H. Kress and McLellan stores. He joined the Freedom Rides in 1961 and directed the Alabama Voter Registration Project, later becoming involved with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. LaFayette served as president of American Baptist College from 1992-1999. The Tennessean has more on his life.