Wave Staff and Wire Report
LOS ANGELES — A local politician is leading a national campaign to get President Joe Biden to posthumously award the Rev. James Lawson, the former longtime pastor of Holman United Methodist Church and an icon of the civil rights movement, with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Los Angeles, led 23 members of Congress in sending a letter last week in an effort to honor Lawson, who served as the pastor at Holman for 25 years. Lawson died June 9 at age 95 after a brief illness, prompting tributes from across the country, including from Biden himself.
“Jill and I are saddened by the loss of one of our nation’s noblest leaders,” Biden said in a statement after Lawson’s death. “His passing before Juneteenth is a reminder that our nation’s journey from slavery to freedom started in the hearts of people like James Lawson spellbound by freedom. We send our condolences to the Lawson family as our nation mourns a man who helped redeem the soul of our nation.”
The letter to the president sent by members of Congress highlighted Lawson’s contributions to the civil rights movement.
“From his instrumental involvement in the Nashville, TN, sit-in movement to his leadership in the Memphis, TN, sanitation workers’ strike, Rev. Lawson’s courage and moral clarity have inspired generations of activists and advocates,” the Congress members wrote in the letter. “His teachings on nonviolent resistance not only shaped the course of the civil rights movement but also influenced movements for social change around the world.
“Rev. Lawson’s contributions to the advancement of civil rights and human dignity are immeasurable, and it is only fitting that his remarkable legacy be honored with the highest civilian honor bestowed by our nation, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. By recognizing Rev. Lawson’s extraordinary achievements, we not only pay tribute to his lifelong commitment to justice but also reaffirm our nation’s values of equality, freedom and dignity for all.
“Rev. Lawson’s tireless advocacy for civil rights and social justice are clear reasons why he deserves the honor of posthumously receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Such a gesture would honor Rev. Lawson’s remarkable life … and serve as an ongoing commitment to his life’s pursuit of justice and equality,” the letter concluded.
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, 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 an institute for the research and study of nonviolent movements bearing his name in 2021.
Lawson also participated in the 1961 Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation on interstate buses and bus terminals.
Lawson became pastor of Centenary Methodist Church in Memphis 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.
