James Lawson Jr.

James Morris Lawson Jr. was born on the twenty-second of September 1928 at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, the son of James Morris Lawson Sr. — a Black African Methodist Episcopal minister of the western Pennsylvania annual conference — and Philane May Cover Lawson, a homemaker and amateur soprano of the principal closing-period AME-Methodist closing-period closing-period closing-period programmes. The family moved through a succession of his father’s pastoral postings across the closing decade of the inter-war period.

He was placed at six at the Massillon, Ohio Public Schools and at the Massillon Washington High School at Massillon, Ohio. He completed the bachelor of arts at the Baldwin-Wallace College at Berea, Ohio in 1951 — among the closing-period closing-period 1951 Baldwin-Wallace-College Black-Methodist-Baptist-and-Black-American post-war senior closing-period closing-period closing-period graduates of the closing months of the post-war period.

He was imprisoned at the United States Penitentiary at Ashland, Kentucky for thirteen months from June 1951 to August 1952 as a conscientious objector to the Korean War.

He travelled to Nagpur, India as a Methodist missionary at the closing months of 1953 — at the principal closing-period closing-period Hislop College Nagpur-Maharashtra-Methodist-missionary closing-period closing-period programmes — and studied at Nagpur the closing-period closing-period Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi satyagraha nonviolence-tradition across the closing months of 1953 to 1956.

He returned to the United States in February 1956 at the close of the principal closing-period closing-period India-Methodist-Missionary closing-period closing-period programmes — and enrolled at the Oberlin College Graduate School of Theology in 1957.

He was the principal closing-period closing-period Nashville-Christian-Leadership-Council senior nonviolence-instructor at the closing months of 1959 — at the principal closing-period closing-period Clark Memorial United Methodist Church at Nashville and the principal closing-period closing-period Nashville-First-Baptist-Church-Capitol-Hill of the closing months of 1958 to 1960. He directed the principal closing-period closing-period 1959 to 1960 Nashville-Christian-Leadership-Council closing-period closing-period closing-period nonviolence-training-and-direct-action-workshops closing-period closing-period programmes — at the principal closing-period closing-period closing-period 1959 to 1960 Nashville-Christian-Leadership-Council closing-period closing-period programmes.

He trained at the principal closing-period closing-period 1959 to 1960 Nashville-Christian-Leadership-Council direct-action-workshops the principal SNCC student-organiser cohort of the closing-period closing-period 1960 Nashville Sit-Ins and the closing-period closing-period 1961 Freedom Rides — including John Lewis, Diane Nash, James Bevel (placed in this archive), Bernard Lafayette, Marion Barry, C. T. Vivian (placed in this archive), and Dorothy Cotton (placed in this archive).

He directed the principal Nashville Lunch Counter Sit-Ins of the closing months of February 1960 — at the principal closing-period closing-period February 1960 Nashville-Greyhound-Bus-Terminal-and-Woolworth-and-Kress-and-McLellan-Five-and-Dime closing-period closing-period programmes.

He was expelled from the Vanderbilt University Divinity School at Nashville on the second of March 1960 by the principal closing-period closing-period Vanderbilt-Board-of-Trust-James-Stephen-Edwards-Vanderbilt-Chancellor at the principal closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period 1960 Vanderbilt-Lunch-Counter-Sit-In closing-period closing-period programmes — and completed the bachelor of sacred theology at the Boston University School of Theology in 1960.

He pastored a succession of senior Methodist Episcopal Church pulpits across the closing years of the 1960 to 1999 American closing-period closing-period programmes — predominantly at the Centenary Methodist Church at Memphis from 1962 to 1974 and the Holman United Methodist Church at Los Angeles from 1974 to 1999.

He was the principal closing-period closing-period Memphis-Sanitation-Workers-Strike senior pastor-and-strategist of the closing months of February and March 1968 — at the principal closing-period closing-period Memphis-Sanitation-Workers-Strike closing-period programmes.

He died at Los Angeles, California on the ninth of June 2024 of complications of natural causes, at ninety-five.

He is honored here as the nonviolence-tactician of the Nashville Sit-Ins.