Rev. James Lawson, giant of the Civil Rights Movement, dies at 95.

A pensive Rev. James Lawson at Vanderbilt University in May 2022. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Rev. James Lawson, a leader of the Civil Rights Movement who trained scores of activists during his time in Nashville — many of whom went on to prominence — died Sunday at the age of 95, according to reports on social media.

No cause of death has been provided yet.

Lawson, an Ohio native, studied the nonviolent resistance techniques championed by Indian lawyer and anti-colonial activist Mohatmas Gandhi while serving as a Methodist missionary in India. Upon his return in 1956, he began studying theology at Oberlin College, where he was introduced to Martin Luther King, Jr.

King urged Lawson to move south and by 1958, Lawson was a student at the Vanderbilt University Divinity School while also serving as the southern director for the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and conducting workshops in nonviolence techniques for students from Tennessee State University, Fisk University and Vanderbilt. Among the students he tutored were John Lewis, who went on to chair the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and later to serve in Congress; Diane Nash, Bernard Lafayette and Marion Barry.

Lawson was expelled from Vanderbilt for his protest activities at the urging of Nashville Banner Publisher James Stahlman, who sat on the university’s board of trustees.

Lawson helped develop strategy for the Freedom Rides, the 1961 campaign to desegregate interstate bus travel and was serving as minister of Centenary Methodist Church in 1968 during a sanitation workers strike. At Lawson’s request, King came to Memphis, where he delivered his famous “Mountaintop” speech and was later assassinated.

In his later life, Lawson continued to serve as a minister and leader for civil rights, becoming active in the labor movement.

With his support, Vanderbilt created in 2022the James Lawson Institute for the Research and Study of Nonviolent Movements at Vanderbilt University, which is housed in the College of Arts and Sciences and Divinity School. A Vanderbilt spokesman confirmed they are aware of Lawson’s death.

He is predeceased by his wife, Dorothy Wood Lawson.

This story will be updated as more details become available.

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