James Lawson's involvement in the Civil Rights Movement completely revolutionized protest techniques. At 32, he had been able to spend three years as a Methodist missionary in India through his involvement in the Fellowship of Reconciliation. While in India, he learned peaceful protest methods from one of the most famous silent protestors of all time: Mahatma Gandhi.
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| James Lawson in the 1960s versus today |
In Nashville, Lawson held seminars for young African-Americans on peaceful protesting. For example, he taught them how to organize a sit-in and other actions that would force America into confronting the issue of segregation without any violence breaking out. It was in those seminars where Lawson convinced his young students that the Civil Rights Movement "was a moment in history when God saw fit to call America back from the depths of moral depravity and onto his path of righteousness."
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| James Lawson alongside Martin Luther King Jr. |
James Lawson remains a strong advocate for Civil Rights even today. He continues to train activists in nonviolence and to work in support of many nonprofit organizations. In the end, Lawson's efforts to train future civil rights protestors and leaders, such as Diane Nash, Bernard Lafayette, and John Lewis, made a tremendous impact on the nonviolent essence of the Civil Rights Movement.
Sources:
http://www.pbs.org/thisfarbyfaith/witnesses/james_lawson.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Lawson_(activist)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/people/james-lawson
Very interesting post! I wonder how different the civil rights movement would have been had it not been for James Lawson teaching so many people the ways of nonviolence. If he had not been involved in the movement would they have still relied on nonviolence?
ReplyDeleteThis is a very nice post, and I agree that James Lawson really was crucial to the success of the civil rights movement. There is a reason why MLK, not Malcolm X, has become synonymous with the civil rights movement, and I believe that the underlying reason for this is MLK's use of non-violence. Like we have discussed in class, when non-violent, innocent citizens are attacked, this gains them sympathy for their cause. James Lawson was right to advocate for this style of protest, and his teachings had a real impact as videos of the protests were broadcasted across the nation via TV.
ReplyDeleteIt it so interesting that Lawson learned about peaceful protest from Gandhi himself. Parallels between the Indian Independence movement and the Civil Rights movement in the US can easily be seen, but I had no idea that they had such direct impacts on one another. That really goes to show just how interconnected the world is, especially when it comes to equality and social justice. I wonder if we can see any similar situations in which domestic movements are being shaped by events in other countries today.
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