James Lawson

Reverend James Lawson (born September 22, 1928 in Uniontown, Pennsylvania) was a leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the American Civil Rights Movement.

Work with Martin Luther King, Jr.

One of his Oberlin professors introduced him to Martin Luther King, Jr., who had led the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama and had also embraced Gandhi's principles of nonviolent resistance. King urged Lawson to come South, telling him "Come now. We don't have anyone like you down there."

Related Topics:
Martin Luther King, Jr. - Montgomery Bus Boycott - Montgomery, Alabama

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lawson moved to Nashville, Tennessee and enrolled at the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University, where he served as the southern director for FOR and began conducting nonviolence training workshops for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. While in Nashville, Lawson met and mentored a number of young students at Vanderbilt, Fisk University, and other area schools in the tactics of nonviolent direct action. Among the students whom Lawson trained were a number of future leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, among them Diane Nash, James Bevel, Marion Barry and John Lewis.

Related Topics:
Nashville, Tennessee - Vanderbilt University - Southern Christian Leadership Conference - Fisk University - Diane Nash - James Bevel - Marion Barry - John Lewis

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The activists trained by Lawson launched a series of sit-ins to challenge segregation in Nashville's downtown stores in 1960. These activists, and others from Atlanta, Georgia and elsewhere in the South joined to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in October 1960. SNCC played a leading role in the Freedom Rides, the 1963 March on Washington, Mississippi Freedom Summer and the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party over the next few years. Lawson's expulsion from Vanderbilt as a result of these activities became one of the celebrated incidents of the era and eventually a source of deep embarrassment to the university.

Related Topics:
Series of sit-ins - 1960 - Atlanta, Georgia - Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee - Freedom Rides - 1963 March on Washington - Mississippi Freedom Summer - Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lawson became pastor of Centenary Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee in 1962. In 1968, when black sanitation workers went on strike for higher wages and union recognition after one of their co-workers was accidentally crushed to death, Reverend Lawson served as chairman of their strike committee.

Related Topics:
Pastor - Memphis, Tennessee - 1962 - 1968

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Reverend Lawson invited Dr. King to Memphis in April 1968 to dramatize their struggle, which had adopted the slogan I am a Man. Dr. King delivered his famous "Mountaintop" speech in support of the strike in Memphis on April 3, 1968, the day before his assassination.

Related Topics:
April 3 - His assassination

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~