Civil rights icon, nonviolence advocate, Pastor James Lawson dies at 95

Funeral services were pending Monday for the Rev. James Lawson Jr., an icon of the Civil Rights Movement and the longtime pastor of Holman United Methodist Church in South Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Sentinel, which first reported the news, reported that Lawson died Monday morning from cardiac arrest. His family told The Associated Press that he died Sunday in Los Angeles after a brief illness. Lawson was 95.

“Today Los Angeles joins the state, country and world in mourning the loss of a civil rights leader whose critical leadership, teachings, and mentorship confronted and crippled centuries of systemic oppression, racism and injustice,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement.

“Reverend James Lawson Jr.'s life and legacy reverberates in the continuing movement to advance social and economic justice in Los Angeles and beyond. He dedicated his life to equality and justice and helped train a generation of national leaders including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Congressman John Lewis in nonviolent protest. These teachings changed the course of history.

“Here in Los Angeles, Reverend Lawson taught many activists and organizers and helped shape the civil rights and labor movement locally just as he did nationally.”

Bass said Lawson “was gracious enough to meet with young people we were working with in South Los Angeles and teach them about the civil rights movement while training them in non-violent protest strategies,” when help found the Community Coalition organization.

“Reverend Lawson was also an invaluable mentor to me,” Bass said.

“I continued seeking his counsel throughout my time as an organizer, an activist and as an elected official. He was there for me as I know he was there for countless civic and faith leaders here in Los Angeles who were guided and influenced by his teachings.”

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Heather Hutt, who led a street- dedication ceremony for Lawson in January outside Holman UMC, confirmed the death, telling City News Service in a statement: “Reverend James Morris Lawson was a leader of our community and world, whose messages of love and nonviolence left an indelible mark on the Civil Rights Movement and influenced many. I am deeply saddened to hear of his passing, but know his legacy will continue to guide us for generations to come. His message of love will forever live on in every heart he touched. May he rest in power.”

Assemblyman Mike Gipson, D-Carson, said in a statement he was saddened by the death of the “Civil Rights Movement legend.”

“Yet as sad as I feel to lose an icon, I am in awe of such an accomplished life,” Gipson said. “It leaves a legacy including the nonviolence work of the James Lawson Institute, an immense body of writings published during his time in California, and the many ways that our community champions the cause of others' freedom to this day. May he rest in peace.”

Author and talk show host Tavis Smiley said ``we have lost a giant.''

“The ultimate teacher and practitioner of civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance,” Smiley wrote on social media. `”His message resonates in a moment like this when violence abounds at home and abroad. His sobering voice will be sorely missed.”

Lawson was pastor of Holman United Methodist Church from 1974 until his retirement in 1999. A mile-long stretch of Adams Boulevard from Crenshaw Boulevard to Arlington Avenue in front of the church was co-named in January as the Reverend James Lawson Mile.

Born James Morris Lawson Jr. Sept. 22, 1928, in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, the son and grandson of Methodist ministers, Lawson was raised in Massillon, Ohio.

While a student at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, Lawson was drafted by the U.S. Army, but refused to serve due to his belief in nonviolence and was sentenced to two years in prison.

Released after 13 months, Lawson returned to college to finish his education, then traveled to Nagpur, India as a Methodist missionary to study the nonviolence resistance tactics developed by Mahatma Gandhi.

Lawson returned to the United States in 1956, entering the Graduate School of Theology at Oberlin College in Ohio. According to a biography from the Stanford University-based Martin Luther King, Jr. Research & Education Institute, one of Lawson's Oberlin professors introduced him to King, who had also embraced Gandhi's principles of nonviolent resistance.

In 1957, King urged Lawson to move to the South telling him, “Come now. We don't have anyone like you down there.” He moved to Nashville, Tennessee where he attended Vanderbilt University and began teaching nonviolent protest techniques.

In February 1960, following lunch counter sit-ins initiated by students at a Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina, Lawson and several local activists launched a similar protest in Nashville's downtown stores. More than 150 students were arrested before city leaders agreed to desegregate some lunch counters.

Lawson was expelled from Vanderbilt in March 1960 because of his involvement with Nashville's desegregation movement. Lawson eventually reconciled with Vanderbilt and returned to teach as a distinguished university professor. Vanderbilt established a institute for the research and study of nonviolent movements bearing his name in 2021.

Lawson participated in the 1961 Freedom Rides which challenged segregation on interstate buses and bus terminals.

Lawson became pastor of Centenary Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee in 1962. In 1968, when Black sanitation workers in Memphis began a strike for higher wages and union recognition after two of their co-workers were accidentally crushed to death, Lawson served as chairman of their strike committee.

Lawson and King led a march in support of the strikers on March 28, 1968, which erupted in violence and was immediately called off.    

In what would be his final speech on April 3, 1968, one day before his assassination, 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,” King said.