James lawson death

James lawson quotes

James Morris Lawson Jr. September 22, — June 9, was an American activist and university professor. He was a leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the Civil Rights Movement. Both Lawson's father and grandfather were Methodist ministers. Lawson received his ministry license in during his senior year of high school. Because of his refusal to serve in the US military when drafted, he was convicted of draft evasion and sentenced to two years in prison.

He served 13 months of his sentence and returned to college, finishing his degree. He went as a Methodist missionary to Nagpur , India, where he studied satyagraha , a form of nonviolence resistance developed by Mohandas Gandhi and his followers. We don't have anyone like you down there. Lawson studied at Oberlin College from to and after being there for a year, he married Dorothy Wood and had three sons.

Lawson was expelled from Vanderbilt in March for civil rights arrests, but received his S. Lawson moved to Nashville, Tennessee , and enrolled at the Divinity School of Vanderbilt University, where he served as the southern director for CORE and began conducting nonviolence training workshops for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in a church basement in While in Nashville, he met and mentored a number of young students at Vanderbilt, Fisk University , and other area schools in the tactics of nonviolent direct action.

In and , they and other Lawson-trained activists launched the Nashville sit-ins to challenge segregation in downtown stores. Their actions led to desegregation of some lunch counters. Lawson was expelled from Vanderbilt due to his participation in these activities. Branscomb later re-examined that action, regretting he did not consider referring the matter to a committee to delay action for three months until Lawson's graduation.