Presidential Medal of Freedom winner C.T. Vivian will be laid to rest Thursday following services that will be broadcast beginning at 10:45 a.m.

The Rev. Vivian, 95, died July 17, the same day as his long-time friend and fellow Medal of Freedom recipient Georgia U.S. Rep. John Lewis.

Vivian was born in Missouri but spent much of his life in Atlanta, where he became a close friend and adviser of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s.

U.S. President Barack Obama awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to C.T. Vivian in the East Room at the White House on Nov. 20, 2013 in Washington, D.C. The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Vivian was presented the nation’s highest civilian honor by President Barack Obama in 2013. Obama had previously echoed King’s sentiment that Vivian was “the greatest preacher to ever live.”

Vivian met Alabama native Lewis in early 1960 as they led protests in Nashville aimed at ending segregation, Lewis said in his book “Walking With the Wind.” After the bombing of a Black city councilman’s home, Vivian led what Lewis said was the first mass civil rights march in American history to City Hall, where Vivian prodded the Nashville mayor into announcing support for integrating public lunch counters.

Lewis and Vivian were together in Selma on Feb. 16, 1965, when they and about 20 others marched to the Dallas County Courthouse, where Blacks were being denied the right to register to vote. Sheriff Jim Clark and his deputies met the protesters, including Vivian, who had previously been on the Freedom Rides and spent time in the notorious Parchman prison in Mississippi for protesting.

“He told the sheriff and his deputies that they reminded him of Nazis,” Lewis recalled in his biography. “‘You’re racists the same way Hitler was a racist!’ he said, loud enough for reporters to get every word. He then dared Clark to hit him. Even though deputies stepped in to try to stop him, the sheriff took the bait. He reached out and slammed his first into Vivian’s mouth, knocking him down the steps. He hit Vivian so hard he broke a finger in his hand. Vivian was then arrested.”

C.T. Vivian attends Tyler Perry Studios grand opening gala at Tyler Perry Studios on Oct. 5, 2019 in Atlanta. (Paul R. Giunta/Getty Images)

Two days later, Vivian was out of jail and back with Lewis in Marion. Local demonstrators asked Vivian to speak at Zion Methodist Church. After the nighttime speech, Lewis recalled in his book, about 450 people began marching to the city jail to sing to James Orange, who was incarcerated there for protesting. Streetlights were suddenly cut off by police and in the ensuing mayhem Jimmie Lee Jackson was shot by a state trooper. Jackson died eight days later in a Selma hospital, as Lewis, Vivian and other civil rights leaders made that Alabama city the focus of the movement.

Vivian went on to establish Vision, which gave college scholarships to more than 700 Alabama students in 1966. Vision would become Upward Bound. In the 1970s, he moved to Atlanta and founded BASICS (Black Action Strategies and Information Center), which promoted better race relations. In 1979, he co-founded the Center for Democratic Renewal to bring whites and Blacks together to fight white supremacy groups.

In the 1990s, Vivian was featured in the award-winning documentary “Eyes on the Prize” and was the subject of a PBS special “The Healing Ministry of Dr. C.T. Vivian.”

In 2008, he founded the C.T. Vivian Leadership Institute and the “Yes, We Care” campaign that helped save Morris Brown College. In 2012, he returned to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference as interim president.

Private services for Vivian are at 10:45 a.m. Thursday in Providence Missionary Baptist Church of Atlanta. The funeral will be streamed live through the church website https://pmbcatlanta.com/watch-live/.