Studying for the ministry at
American Baptist Theological Seminary (now called American Baptist College) in
Nashville, Tennessee, in 1959, Vivian met
James Lawson, who was teaching
Mohandas Gandhi's
nonviolent direct action strategy to the
Nashville Student Movement. Soon Lawson's students, including
Diane Nash,
Bernard Lafayette,
James Bevel,
John Lewis and others from American Baptist,
Fisk University and
Tennessee State University, organized a systematic nonviolent
sit-in campaign at local lunch counters. Vivian helped found the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference, and helped organize the first
sit-ins in Nashville in 1960 and the first civil rights march in 1961. In 1961, Vivian participated in
Freedom Rides. He worked alongside
Martin Luther King Jr. as the national director of affiliates for the SCLC. In this position, he was a vocal supporter of the strikers during the
1964–1965 Scripto strike in Atlanta. In 1965 Vivian and a crowd of about 70 African American voters marched to the Dallas County Courthouse in Alabama to register to vote following a court order allowing them to do so. However, when they arrived Sheriff
Jim Clark (sheriff) of Dallas County stopped them from entering. Following this Vivian got into a heated conversation with Clark which ended in him being arrested and then released shortly after. During the summer following the
Selma Voting Rights Movement, Vivian conceived and directed an educational program, Vision, and put 702
Alabama students in college with scholarships (this program later became
Upward Bound). His 1970
Black Power and the American Myth was the first book on the Civil Rights Movement by a member of Martin Luther King's staff. In 1984 he served in
Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign, as the national deputy director for clergy. In 1994 he helped to establish, and served on the board of Capitol City Bank and Trust Co., a black-owned Atlanta bank. He also served on the board of Every Church a Peace Church. {{external media Vivian continued to speak publicly and offer workshops, and did so at many conferences around the country and the world, including with the United Nations. He was featured as an activist and an analyst in the civil rights documentary
Eyes on the Prize, and was featured in a
PBS special,
The Healing Ministry of Dr. C. T. Vivian. He made numerous appearances on
Oprah as well as the
Montel Williams Show and
Donahue. He was the focus of the biography
Challenge and Change: The Story of Civil Rights Activist C.T. Vivian by Lydia Walker. In 2008, Vivian founded and incorporated the C. T. Vivian Leadership Institute, Inc. (CTVLI) to "Create a Model Leadership Culture in Atlanta" Georgia. The C. T. Vivian Leadership Institute conceived, developed and implemented the "Yes, We Care" campaign on December 18, 2008 (four days after the City of Atlanta turned the water off at
Morris Brown College (MBC)) and, over a period of two and a half months, mobilized the Atlanta community to donate in excess of $500,000 directly to Morris Brown as "bridge funding." That effort saved the
Historically Black College or University (HBCU) and allowed the college to negotiate with the city which ultimately restored the water services to the college. In 2018, Vivian donated his collection of 6,000 volumes of books largely about the black experience and written by black authors to the
National Monuments Foundation for inclusion in the Peace Column, the centerpiece of the upcoming
Rodney Cook Sr. Park in Vine City. The C.T. Vivian Library will be housed within the base of the 110-foot column. ==Later life==