The Rev. James M. Lawson, Jr. died on June 10, 2024. I met him once. He was giving a speech, and I was a student. I remember him as a powerful and engaging speaker. When we talk about the Civil Rights movement, there are many names that come up — Martin Luther King, Jr., of course, and Ralph Abernathy, John Lewis, Medgar Evans, Roy Wilkins, Whitney Young, Fred Shuttlesworth, and even Bayard Rustin (see the movie — “Rustin” on Netflix — it’s amazing). But I don’t hear much about Jim Lawson, although he was a tremendous force within the Civil Rights movement.
He refused to register with the military, and was sent to prison in 1951. When he was released, he traveled to India, where he worked as a missionary for the Methodist Church. It was there that he learned a great deal about the non-violent methods that Gandhi used to free the country from British rule. When he returned to the United States, he continued his studies in theology at Oberlin College. It was at Oberlin that he met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who convinced him to move to the South to teach non-violence there. Lawson transferred to Vanderbilt, where he was instrumental in organizing workshops on non-violence to support students who were planning the famous lunch counter sit-ins in Nashville. The students he taught included John Lewis, Marion Barry, and Diane Nash. In February 1960, over 150 students were arrested before the lunch counters were desegregated after receiving pressure from city leaders. In March, Lawson was expelled from Vanderbilt because of his involvement in the protests.
Lawson helped to form the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and co-authored its statement of purpose. He was also involved with the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and for each organization, he provided training in non-violence. Lawson urged King to come to Memphis, Tennessee, to work with the striking sanitation workers there. It was during this strike that King was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
Lawson never stopped working for what he called the “redemptive community.” He was a board member of SCLC, and from 1974 to 1999 served as the pastor of Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles.
In his 1968 speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” Martin Luther King spoke of Lawson as one of the “noble men” who had influenced the black freedom struggle: “He’s been going to jail for struggling; he’s been kicked out of Vanderbilt University for this struggling; but he’s still going on, fighting for the rights of his people.”
Thanks be to God for people like Rev. James Lawson, and the work that they do to help make the world a better place for all people.
