1. Bernard Lafayette played a leading role in early organizing of the Selma Voting Rights Movement; was a member of the Nashville Student Movement; and worked closely throughout the 1960s movements with groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the American Friends Service Committee.
Bernard Lafayette's siblings were Harold Rozelia, Brenda, Geri, Michael, and Victoria.
Bernard Lafayette's family grew up poor, so Bernard started working odd jobs to gain more income by the age of 11.
Bernard Lafayette's jobs included cashiering, meat cutting, delivering produce, and collecting change at a coffee shop.
When Bernard Lafayette was seven years old, he was heading downtown with his grandmother, Ma Foster, so they decided to catch a cable car.
Bernard Lafayette says that this was one of the first instances where he realized that he wanted to do something about how African Americans were being treated.
Bernard Lafayette had two children with his previous wife Colia Liddell Lafayette: Bernard Lafayette III and James Lafayette Sr.
James became an ordained preacher, and Bernard Lafayette III attended American Baptist College.
Bernard Lafayette learned more about the philosophy of nonviolence as lived by Mohandas Gandhi, while taking seminars from activist James Lawson, a well-known nonviolent representative of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Bernard Lafayette began to use the nonviolent techniques as he became more exposed to the strong racial injustice of the South.
Bernard Lafayette, Fred Leonard and Allen Cason narrowly escaped being killed by jumping over a wall and running to the post office.
Bernard Lafayette met the representatives of the Dallas County Voters League who impressed him.
Bernard Lafayette went on to work on the 1966 Chicago Open Housing Movement.
Bernard Lafayette later became ordained as a Baptist minister and served as president of the American Baptist Theological Seminary.
In 1973, Bernard Lafayette was named first director of the Peace Education Program at Gustavus Adolphus College, Saint Peter, Minnesota.
The Gustavus program enabled Bernard Lafayette to infuse the entire curriculum of the college with peace education.
Bernard Lafayette served this Lutheran liberal arts college for nearly three years.
Bernard Lafayette was the dean of the graduate school at Alabama State University.
Bernard Lafayette has been recognized as a major authority on strategies for nonviolent social change.
Bernard Lafayette is recognized as one of the leading exponents of nonviolent direct action in the world.
Bernard Lafayette was a Senior Fellow at the University of Rhode Island, where he helped to found the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies.
Bernard Lafayette is a Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the Candler School of Theology, at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Bernard Lafayette was honored as a Doctor of Humane Letters from Mount Holyoke College, in May 2012.