"A Quiet Period" Civil Rights activist recalls his group's discipline -- even in jail Bernard Lafayette was an activist during the Civil Rights Movement. In 2003 he was interviewed as part of the Nashville Public Library's Civil Rights Oral History Project. Among the things he talked about was the discipline shown by groups of civil rights workers. In this part of his interview, he talks about being in a Nashville jail in 1960 (for a protest-related crime) along with about 40-50 fellow protestors and being told by prison guards to shovel snow: Bernard Lafayette, one of the times he was arrested during the Civil Rights Movement "This was called the workhouse, where you actually had to do work. So they decided what they were going to do was get these colored boys . . . outside to shovel snow. They said, 'at least they can do an honest day's work. So far all they been doin' is sittin' in and sittin' down.' Now some fellows wanted to refuse to work . . . We chimed in and said, 'no, let's go out and get some fresh air and exercise. We are penned up here, you know, in these cells.' ". . . We went out there and started shoveling snow, throwing it on the truck. And we made an art of it, you know, who could throw the furthest . . . throw backwards, throw across your shoulder. And see, when they saw the students out there, the people in the buildings, they came to look . . . And when we finished all of the parking lot in the immediate area of the jail, we asked the warden if we could go across the street and shovel the snow on the other side and he became very upset. He said, 'get back in that jail.' "So nonviolence is about taking lemons and making lemonade. And what is designed to cause you to suffer and humiliate you, you wear with a badge of honor. And we shoveled snow like [Arnold] Toynbee wrote history and Beethoven wrote music and Picasso painted. We made it to the highest quality in our ability. And that, they began to see, is not something that can't be translated into suffering. Bernard Lafayette from Selma to Montgomery march in 1965. To his left are Len Holt, John Lewis, Andrew Young and James Orange PHOTO: Associated Press "We had our own schedule. In the morning we got up early and had our devotion. We had our meals, we had periods when we got people to give us different lectures who were in jail. And we had our quiet period. "One afternoon after lunch the jailer came to distribute the mail . . . And he started calling names of people who were in the cell. Nobody said anything . . . And he said, 'Okay. If you don't want this mail, see if I care.' And I remember going over to the corner and beckoning him over and told him this was our quiet hour and that if he'd come back around two, that we would accept the mail, but this was our quiet hour. "And we had a whole hour of silence, and not a person spoke or said anything. Because we realized we were in a crowded situation, with all that noise going on, that you need some moment just to reflect and relax and not to have to interact with anybody or hear anybody else's actions. ". . . So all of our time was scheduled as a group. We had that kind of discipline. And so the jailer came to respect the fact that, number one, we had control over our own schedules, and even though we were in jail, we were free. That was important for him to understand. "And when we were released from jail, and we had an early release, because it wasn't popular to keep a large group of college students in jail, the jailer -- the warden -- stood at the door and shook each of our hands coming out. And he said, 'you're the best prisoners I've ever had.' Lafayette today PHOTO: University of Rhode Island "...Even when you're in jail, you have an opportunity to transform . . . The place does not make the person, but the person defines the place . . . We were students, so the cells were the classrooms. because it's what you do in that space and who you are that makes the difference. So we were students. So we had books. We were studying. We were preparing. That was important. We had lectures scheduled; we had church in the cells . . . The jailers came to understand that this is the internal discipline and the understanding of who you are that makes the place what it is. And thereby, they saw this in us, and really admired that." (Dr. Bernard Lafayette Jr., who was arrested 27 times for civil disobedience during the Civil Rights Movement, is now the director of the Center for Non-Violence and Peace Studies at the University of Rhode Island. Click here to be taken to its web page.) COPYRIGHT -- the Civil Rights Oral History Collection of the Nashville Public Library, Special Collections Division