Civil Rights Museum Mourns Organizer Bernard Lafayette Jr.
SHERIDAN, WYOMING -- August 18, 2026 -- The National Civil Rights Museum is mourning Rev. Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Jr., the organizer and nonviolence teacher who helped steer sit-ins, Freedom Rides, and the Selma campaign. Staff remember him as a 2012 Freedom Award honoree and a frequent visitor who walked students through the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. His death closes a living link to the people who planned the modern Civil Rights Movement from the ground up. For families still talking about voting rights at the kitchen table, his story shows how ordinary neighbors, trained and organized, changed national law. He spent a lifetime arguing that courage needed training, and that democracy grows when regular people learn how to stand up together.