MLK day: Civil Rights Leader James Lawson

Wittenberg, Monday, Jan 16, at 11:00 a.m.

James Lawson is a civil rights leader (with Ohio roots--he grew up in Massilon, studied at Baldwin Wallace in Berea as an undergraduate, and later at Oberlin Theological Seminary); Martin Luther King Jr. called him "the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world." James Lawson helped to coordinate the Freedom Rides in 1961 and the Meredith March in 1966, while introducing the principles of Gandhian nonviolence to future leaders in the Civil Rights Movement.

He'll be speaking at Wittenberg on Monday, Jan 16, at 11:00 in Weaver Chapel.

The Wittenberg community and the public also are invited to a Q & A session with the Rev. James Lawson in Shouvlin 105 at 2 p.m. on Monday.

The Eyes on the Prize video below “Ain’t Scared of Your Jails, 1960-61” introduces you to the work of James Lawson as he prepares the students to challenge segregation of stores and restaurants in downtown Nashville--his section starts at about 4:43. Jim Lawson is the young man (Vanderbilt theology student) in the video training many of the young leaders of the Civil Rights Movement in nonviolent direct action. He, and many of those in the video, will go on to organize the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and also keep the Congress of Racial Equality’s (CORE) initiative, the Freedom Rides, from ending after the firebombing of a bus outside Anniston Alabama and the beating of riders in Birmingham Alabama.