Bernard LaFayette, leader of Selma voting rights campaign, dead at 85

By: J. Holly McCall

Outlets: Tennessee Lookout

Published: March 6, 2026

Words: 425

Last Updated: 4 days, 19 hours ago

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Rev. Bernard Lafayette, who led the 1965 voting rights campaign in Selma, Alabama, an effort marked by violence toward civil rights workers, died Thursday at age 85.

LaFayette’s son, Bernard LaFayette, III, said in a statement his father died of heart attack.

A Florida native, LaFayette became involved in the Civil Rights Movement while at student at Nashville’s American Baptist College, where he roomed with another future civil rights leader, the late U.S. Rep. John …

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