Thinking Out
of the Lunchbox
The Rev. James Lawson
The return of the Rev. James Lawson to Vanderbilt University as Distinguished University Professor marks the latest chapter in a life dedicated to the principles of non-violence and reconciliation.
Lawson, once dubbed by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as “the leading nonviolence theorist in the world,” studied the Gandhian movement in India before becoming a leader in the civil rights movement. His life – including his student years at Vanderbilt – has been marked by an abiding faith in Christianity and non-violence, and a willingness to pay the price for those beliefs. He served 13 months of a three-year prison sentence for refusing the draft during the Korean War, and was expelled from Vanderbilt in 1960 because of his work helping to desegregate lunch counters in downtown Nashville.
After a national press uproar and threats of mass faculty resignations, a compromise allowed Lawson to complete his graduate studies at Vanderbilt. He opted instead to complete his degree at Boston University.
Lawson went on to a career in the ministry, serving for 25 years as pastor of Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, before becoming pastor emeritus in 1999. He returned to Vanderbilt Divinity School in 1970-71 during a sabbatical, and that school recognized him in 1996 with its first Distinguished Alumnus Award. The Association of Vanderbilt Black Alumni named Lawson the 2002 Walter R. Murray Distinguished Alumnus, and he was named Vanderbilt’s 2005 Distinguished Alumnus.
Lawson is spending his time at Vanderbilt teaching, speaking and participating in discussion groups with faculty. Vanderbilt archiving experts are cataloguing his papers, and Lawson plans to do some writing – perhaps an autobiography – based on the papers.m