Dr. C.T. Vivian

If you want to begin to understand me, my family, my people, I invite you to look at the ring with a family crest I designed years ago.

Do you see the blackness on the upper left with a handful of stars peeking through?  That’s slavery.  We farmed the land in those dark days, but we did it under peonage, for others.

When we came out of slavery, we continued to farm.  Because that was the work we knew.   But it was different now that we were free.  We didn’t have to work for anyone else; and, when possible, we could buy farms for ourselves.

We were doing that, and we were winning, but then came the Depression.  It knocked us down, but it didn’t knock us out.  Because during this time we were switching over to books, to knowledge.  That’s why my grandmother and my parents were so committed to the fact that no matter what happened, I was going to get an education.  This is a commitment I’ve continued with my children and that they’ve continued with theirs.

You’ll see that above the book that signifies learning, I’ve placed clouds.  That’s imagination.  We don’t learn solely by reading books.  It’s the imagination that goes with the education that creates something greater-- the vision.

See the sun on the ring?  It rises on a new day.  And if you look closely, you’ll see that it creates a cross. 

The cross.  That’s what undergirded us in slavery.  Undergirded us in peonage and coming out of it. Undergirded us in owning our farms and belongings. Undergirds our  intellectual life.

That’s the only way we get to the new day that we really hope for.  That’s why nonviolence becomes tremendously important.  It has to be a spiritual thing.

My ring with family crest.  With a cross right in the middle.  That is what it is all about.

For a closer look at the Vivian family crest and the life of Dr. Vivian, visit Other Stuff