Jim Lawson
by Daniel Seeman

“Non-violent refusal to cooperate with injustice is the way to defeat it.”
Mohandas Gandhi

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is probably the first name to come to mind when most people think of black civil rights leaders, and the theme most closely associated with the civil rights movement is the non-violence practices by Dr. King, but few people realize that the guiding force behind the adoption of non-violence by black civil rights activists was actually a Methodist minister named Jim Lawson. Rev. Lawson, who studied the Gandhian philosophy of non-violence while living in India after spending time in jail for draft resistance during the Korean war, trained hundreds of civil rights activists through his Nashville workshops, and was vastly instrumental in the success of non-violent approach to desegregation in America. Attaining equality for African Americans through sit-ins and non-violent protest mirrored the work of Gandhi in India 30 years earlier and helped avoid the militarism and adversarial politics that some other leaders advocated. Jim Lawson’s work was essential to the success of integration in America, but as a silent, non-violent proponent of peace and justice, his name has been largely overlooked by the history books. He embodied the struggle for African-Americans and used his non-violent values to organize and fight injustice. He led from within, bridged cultural difference, adhered steadfastly to the non-violent ethic he taught,and as such shows us the way for the new century. He is a role model for the ordinary person and as such stands out as a model for the greatest peace hero of the 20th century.

Born in the small town of Masillon, Ohio, Jim Lawson was introduced to Gandhi’s writings and history of non-violence while attending college by A.J. Muste of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). Later, during the Korean war, Lawson refused to cooperate with his draft board, and was sent to prison. He could have filed for a ministerial deferment or conscientious objector status, but it was his sense of right and wrong, his sense of duty, and his pacifist values, instilled in him by his parents and by his Christian upbringing, that kept him from taking the “easy” way out. As a result, Lawson was sentenced to three years in federal prison, an experience which further re-enforced his values.

Released from prison, he was sent to India in 1955 as a missionary by the Methodists who sponsored him through FOR. The trip to India was a major influence in shaping his non-violent values. As a missionary at a college in the city of Nagpur he studied the non-violent methods of Gandhi and met several of Gandhi’s disciples. In 1956, Lawson read in a local Nagpur paper, about a man named Martin Luther King, Jr. who seemed to be advocating non-violent activism as a possible method of achieving civil rights for blacks in the American South, though he had no association with India.

Lawson returned to America later that year and began studying for his masters degree at Oberlin College in Ohio. Dr. King gave a speech on campus that Lawson attended, and at the student-faculty luncheon after the speech, Lawson was able to meet with Dr. King. King, for his part, was thrilled to find someone with first hand knowledge of Gandhian ideals and techniques and urged Lawson to postpone his academic plans and bring his knowledge to the movement where King hoped it would be effective. Lawson agreed, and went to Nashville, where he ran SNCC non-violence workshops on Tuesday nights in the basement of a small Baptist church near Fisk University.

In these workshops Lawson put the Gandhian philosophies he had learned in India to work with college students from the Nashville area, training them as peace workers. Students learned to deal with abuse without lashing back through role playing games, and they learned non-violent techniques from Lawson’s lectures. Workshop students participated in sit-ins of segregated lunch counters in downtown Nashville, organized by Lawson, which brought national attention to the struggle for equal rights. After a few weeks of sit-ins and hundreds of arrests, Mayor Ben West endorsed the cause of the demonstrators, stating that he was doing so on moral grounds. It was the first major victory that Lawson and his students had achieved, and was the first step towards desegregation in Nashville.

The Gandhian ideals for which Lawson stood were important moral issues, but as tactics to end segregation they were indispensable. They made it possible to use all members of the community, not just young men to “fight” for the cause. They embarrassed the oppressor, and in the end, there is no way to defeat non-violence with violence because each violent attack changed minds and made the non-violent side even stronger.

Though a non-violent movement takes time, and non-violent proponents have to wait for the enemy to destroy itself, it results in real change which lasts. Because the black civil rights movement followed the Gandhian ideals brought from India by Lawson, it didn’t budge on the issues, and real change was possible.

By bringing Gandhian tactics of non-violence to the struggle for civil rights in America, Jim Lawson has helped change America forever. Lawson’s embodiment of the moral values of non-violence has helped change America forever. Lawson’s embodiment of the moral values of non-violence has transformed the moral conscience of our country. Though not remembered in great detail by the history books, he was important tot eh civil rights movement in a way that kept him behind the scenes. Where president Teddy Roosevelt tells us to “speak softly but carry a big stick,” Jim Lawson teaches that it can be more effective if on speaks loudly, but doesn’t carry a stick at all. In a world where weapons are more destructive all the time, and their use more unthinkable, the power of the moral weapon of non-violence, is just being tapped. Gandhi himself said, “If you are non-violent, there is no weapon that can be used against you,” but he also noted that “My technique of non-violent struggle is at the same stage as electricity in Edison’s time, to be refined and developed.” (A Force More Powerful).

We have The Reverend Jim Lawson to thank for making non-violence available to us for the moral battles we will face in this new century. Jim Lawson embodies the peace hero we need to emulate in the years to come. As a humble African-American man whom few have heard of, he sought no glory for himself, but through his non-violent values and his work making connection between people, he brought Gandhian non-violence to Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement, and changed America and the world forever. For this reason and because he represents what each of us can and must strive for, he represents in a unique way what can be achieved without fame or fanfare, and for this reason should be considered the greatest peace hero of the twentieth century, because he represents us all.