The Reverend James Lawson, whom Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., referred to as the “leading non-violence theorist and strategist in the world,” will be the featured speaker at the annual observance of Dr. King’s birthday on Jan. 15, at noon, in the Gilbert-Lambuth Memorial Chapel on Paine College’s campus. The annual observance rotates each year among the campuses of Augusta State University, Augusta Technical College, Paine College, and the Medical College of Georgia.
Rev. Lawson has pra
cticed the principles of nonviolent resistance for decades. A conscientious objector to the Korean War, he refused to report for the draft in 1951 and served 13 months of a prison sentence. Following his release from prison, he went to India as a missionary where he studied the principles of nonviolent resistance practiced by Mahatma Gandhi and his followers. He returned to the United States in 1955 and entered the Graduate School of Theology at Oberlin College.
He was invited South by Rev. King; working with Rev. King, he helped found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960. While enrolled in Vanderbilt Divinity School in the early 1960s, he helped organize sit-in demonstrations at lunch counters in Downtown Nashville and, as a result, was expelled from the school.
In 1961, Rev. Lawson coordinated the Freedom Ride and was the advance staff person for the Birmingham campaign in 1963. He coordinated the Meredith march in Mississippi in 1966 and participated in the 1961-67 Chicago March efforts. He served as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for 14 years and was chair of the strategy committee for the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike, which drew national attention. King was assassinated while supporting that effort.
Rev. Lawson went on to a career in the ministry, serving for 25 years as pastor of Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, before becoming pastor emeritus in 1999. He returned to Vanderbilt Divinity School in 1970-71 during a sabbatical, and that school recognized him in 1996 with its first Distinguished Alumnus Award. The Association of Vanderbilt Black Alumni named Rev. Lawson the 2002 Walter R. Murray Distinguished Alumnus, and he was named Vanderbilt’s 2005 Distinguished Alumnus.
He continues to spend much of his time at Vanderbilt teaching, speaking, and participating in discussion groups with faculty. Rev. Lawson was interviewed for the original documentary on the Civil Rights Movement and said he is delighted that another generation can view Eyes on the Prize.
“It gives a picture of the scope of the [civil rights] movement,” Rev. Lawson says. “Dr. King and the movement in the black South, especially in the 50s and 60s, represent the zenith of the struggle of the American people to become the kind of people that … this idealist wants us to become.”
Shuttle service will be provided for students, faculty, and staff with pick-up at 11:15 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. in front of University Hall. Seating will be based on first-come, first-served. For more information, call the Office of Student Activities at 706-737-1610.
Dec 22, 2009
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