Submitted by Lopez Island Family Resource Center

With the unfolding of more and more discord, even violence, in small communities, whether around environmental, immigration, racial or gender-related issues, we need tools to defuse this kind of hatred wherever we happen to be. Lopez Island Family Resource Center (LIFRC) is offering a Kingian Nonviolence Training by the Civil Rights icon Bernard Lafayette, along with his wife Kate Lafayette and two other trainers. Co-sponsors of the event include the Lopez Island Friends Meeting (Quakers) and Lopez Community Land Trust.

Lafayette stood shoulder to shoulder with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Congressman John Lewis in the fight for civil rights in the 50s and 60s. He was the field organizer for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in Selma, Alabama, in the run-up to the crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. He has devoted his entire life to teaching the methods of nonviolence that were key to the successes of that era and still apply today. He recently authored the book “In Peace and Freedom: My Journey in Selma.” Lafayette was the recipient of the Gandhi International Humanitarian Award in 2016.

In 1969 Lafayette married his wife Kate who has devoted her life to teaching young children, teaching teachers, consulting and directing childcare programs. After 24 years as the Head Start Director in Tuskegee, Alabama, she retired to become a certified trainer in Kingian Nonviolence. She has most recently been teaching nonviolence in South Africa to ex-militants in the Niger Delta, Nigeria and across the United States to youth.

Kim Pasciuto, Sandy Bishop and Rhea Miller have spent time with Lafayette on a civil rights pilgrimage and attest to his clarity and insight. Of the training, Pasciuto says, “You will come away with a solid foundation in the six steps of Dr. King’s Principles of Non-Violence and six steps of nonviolent social change. You will learn about real-life applications of these principles and have the opportunity to practice them.”

The training will be conducted 5–9 p.m. on May 21 on Lopez and 8:30 a.m–4:30 p.m. on May 22 on Lopez. Vegetarian dinner and lunch will be provided. There is a suggested donation of $10–20 for the event. Registration is required. Call the Family Resource at 360-468-4117 to register and for further information.