C. T. Vivian attends Tyler Perry Studios grand opening gala at Tyler Perry Studios in 2019. (Paras Griffin/Getty Images for Tyler Perry Studios)
ATLANTA - The family of the Rev. C.T. Vivian, an early and key adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King, paid their respects and said goodbye to the civil rights veteran Thursday.
Vivian, 95, died at home in Atlanta of natural causes July 17, the same day that fellow civil rights leader U.S. Rep. John Lewis died.
The funeral took place at Atlanta's Providence Missionary Baptist Church, in a private ceremony open only to the family due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among those who spoke were close family friends and his sons, who shared heartfelt stories of their father, and members of the family.
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Rev. C.T. Vivian’s son-in-law shares heartfelt story about the late civil rights leader
Andre Thornton, son-in-law of Rev. C.T. Vivian, speaks during the civil rights icon's funeral in Atlanta
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Son of civil rights leader Rev. C.T. Vivian remembers his late father
Mark E. Vivian, son of the late Rev. C.T. Vivian, makes emotional speech during the late civil rights leaders' funeral
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Son of Rev. C.T. Vivian remembers his later father
Al Vivian, son of the late Rev. C.T. Vivian, shares heartfelt words about his father during the civil rights leader's funeral.
SEE ALSO: Civil rights veteran Rev. C.T. Vivian dead at 95
Vivian was honored Wednesday as his body lay in state at the Georgia Capitol's rotunda. The casket was then taken in a horse-drawn carriage in front of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) National Office and his friend Martin Luther King Jr.'s tomb.
Vivian's civil rights work stretched back more than six decades, to his first sit-in demonstrations in the 1940s in Peoria, Ill. He met King soon after the budding civil rights leader’s victory in the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. Vivian became an active member of what would become the SCLC.
“He has always been one of the people who had the most insight, wisdom, integrity, and dedication,” said Andrew Young, who also worked alongside King.
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A final farewell to C.T. VIvian
Loved ones gather to say their final goodbyes to civil rights legend C.T. Vivian.
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Vivian was honored by former President Barack Obama with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.
Vivian “was always one of the first in the action — a Freedom Rider, a marcher in Selma, beaten, jailed, almost killed, absorbing blows in hopes that fewer of us would have to,” Obama said in a statement shortly after his death.
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C.T. Vivian honored at Georgia Capitol
Civil Rights icon Rev. C.T. Vivian was honored at the Georgia State Capitol ahead of his funeral on Thursday.
The reverend is survived by his six children, nine grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, 28 great-great-grandchildren, and two great-great-great-grandchildren.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.