How Christians in Shreveport became non-violent during the Civil Rights Movement

SHREVEPORT, La. ( KTAL/KMSS ) – The city of Shreveport is known for non-violence during the civil rights movement. But are you aware that Shreveport took the non-violent path because of a young reverend who taught Martin Luther King, Jr. about Mahatma (Mohandas) Karamchand Gandhi ’s non-violent approach to reform?

King would later say, when he visited Gandhi in India, “To other countries I may go as a tourist, but to India I come as a pilgrim.”

Here’s the reason why King traveled all the way to India to learn how to follow the teachings of Jesus from Mahatma Gandhi.

Lawson goes to India

James Lawson Jr . was a child when another kid insulted him because of the color of his skin. But after he told his mother that he slapped the child who insulted him, Lawson’s momma asked him a question that changed the course of his life:

“What good did that do, Jimmy?”

Like many other Christians, Lawson wanted to follow the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth but didn’t know how to do so under such harsh conditions as the Mid-west and the South during the segregation-era.

As Lawson grew older, he knew that his Christian beliefs didn’t allow for violence. But at the same time he wasn’t sure exactly how he could stand up for himself and others when being wronged.

Once Lawson entered Baldwin College, he began to follow the same path his father had already taken into the ministry. During his first year, he joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) , both of which advocated for nonviolent resistance in response to racism. Upon his membership with these groups, he met with their leaders and became familiar with the tenets of nonviolence from greats like A.J. Muste , James Farmer , Bayard Rustin , and Glenn Smiley .

But in 1950, Lawson had to put his ideas about nonviolence to the test. He told the U.S. Government that he was a conscientious objector and would not enlist during the Korean War. And because of his anti-war beliefs, he was imprisoned in Apr. 1951.

After a year-long sentence, Lawson completed his degree and made a life-changing missionary trip to Nagpur, India where he studied the philosophy of nonviolence, satyagraha .

Satyagraha is the same philosophical framework Gandhi used to resist British Colonialism. It seeks neither defeat, nor victory.

Satyagraha Satyagraha | Gandhi’s Nonviolent Resistance, Civil Disobedience | Britannica

Lawson returns from India with a new perspective

Lawson’s return to the US marked another pivotal point in his life. While getting his master’s degree in theology at Oberlin College , he met with another young minister, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

King convinced Lawson to continue his graduate studies in the South to teach nonviolent workshops.

Lawson then transferred to Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee and joined the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference (NCLC), an affiliate of the Southern Leadership Conference (SCLC) headed by Dr. King and Rev. Ralph Abernathy.

In late 1959, Lawson led nonviolent workshops that included students such as Diane Nash , John Lewis , Bernard Lafayette , C.T. Vivian, and Jim Bevel .

C. T. Vivian was one of King’s lieutenants during the civil rights movement, and he was quite familiar with Lawson’s workshops.

“(The workshops explained) how to in fact begin to take the blows–cigarettes put out on you, the fact that you were being spit on–and still, still respond with some sense of dignity and with a loving concept of what you were about, to be hit and to be knocked down, and to understand that in terms of struggle, and in terms of reaching conscience, in terms of, of gaining the greater goals for which are sought,” said Vivian.

Lawson and his students conducted test sit-ins across Nashville stores, and other cities followed suit in their model throughout the South. His involvement in the desegregation attempts put him at odds with Vanderbilt University. They gave him the ultimatum of withdrawing or facing dismissal from the University.

Lawson was expelled from Vanderbilt University in 1960.

(Vanderbilt University later welcomed Lawson back as a professor in 2006. Fifteen years later, the university launched the James Lawson Institute for the Research and Study of Nonviolent Movements.)

Lawson visits Shreveport

In 1960 Ella Baker, one of the most prominent grassroots Civil Rights and economic organizers, invited Lawson to give the keynote address at the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) .

Lawson’s mentorship to the era’s youth would prove vital in the coming years.

By October 1960, Rev. Lawson, Dr. King, Wyatt Tee Walker, Dr. Gardner C. Taylor, Edward King Jr., and Bernard Lee traveled to Shreveport, Louisiana, for a three-day “freedom rally” at Little Union Baptist Church. They discussed the methods of nonviolence for obtaining voting rights, segregation, and student engagement within the movement. These were the themes of The Southern Struggle and American Dilemma .

The following years saw Lawson continue to work with FOR, CORE, SCLC, and SNCC within the Civil Rights framework of Civil Rights from the pulpit. Throughout the rest of the 1960s and beyond, Lawson had a hand in nearly every major event of the movement—from lending a hand to organizing and participating in the Freedom Rides of 1961, testing bus desegregation, the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965, and the March Against Fear in 1966, to protesting the Vietnam War and advocating for workers’ rights.

King and Lawson visit Memphis

In April of 1968, Lawson invited his friend Dr. King to speak to his congregation at Centenary Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. The idea was to support the city’s sanitation worker strike after a worker was killed during a truck malfunction, sparking the “ I am a Man! ” Campaign.

Dr. King was heading the Poor People’s Campaign and came to support his friends and the workers, and it was in Memphis that King delivered the renowned Mountain Top speech on Apr. 3, 1968.

In the speech, King made reference to his friend.

“And I want to commend the preachers, under the leadership of these noble men,” said King. “James Lawson, one who has been in this struggle for many years; he’s been to jail for struggling; but he’s still going on, fighting for the rights of his people.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed the following day, on April 4, 1968.

Making the movement move without King

The dream did not die with King.

Lawson moved to Los Angeles, where he became the pastor of Holman United Methodist Church and president of the city’s SCLC chapter. His advocacy in Los Angeles branched out to work with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on women’s, immigrant, and LGBTQ+ rights. He also served as Chairman of the Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) and national chair of the FOR.

And Lawson helped to keep Dr. King’s vision alive.

In a world where the fight for liberation meant an early death for so many revolutionaries, we should celebrate the legacy of Lawson’s long life and the incredible amount of strength that it took for him to commit to nonviolence in a violent world.

“The politics of Jesus and the politics of God are that people should be fed, that people have access to life, that people should be treated equally and justly,” Lawson said. “Especially the marginalized. The poor, the illiterate, the jailed, the hungry, the naked — those are all terms Jesus uses. The alien, the stranger, the foreigner, you’re supposed to treat them as you do yourself.”

James Lawson died at the age of 95 on June 9, 2024. But his influence on Shreveport, the South, the United States, and the world will still be softening hearts for generations to come.

Sources:

“Lawson, James M., Jr. | Encyclopedia.com,” n.d., https://www.encyclopedia.com/african-american-focus/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/lawson-james-m-jr.

“Lawson, James M.,” The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute, n.d., https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/lawson-james-m.

“James Lawson: Reflections on Life, Nonviolence, Civil Rights, MLK,” The United Methodist Church, n.d., https://www.umc.org/en/content/james-lawson-reflections-on-life-nonviolence-civil-rights-mlk.

Heidi Hall Tennessean, “Civil Rights Advocate James Lawson Was Rooted in Faith,” The Tennessean, March 2, 2017, https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2017/03/02/civil-rights-advocate-james-lawson-rooted-faith/98605166/.

“Jim Lawson Conducts Nonviolence Workshops in Nashville – SNCC Digital Gateway,” SNCC Digital Gateway, July 14, 2020, https://snccdigital.org/events/jim-lawson-conducts-nonviolent-workshops-in-nashville/.

Tennessean, “James Lawson, Towering Civil Rights Activist and Pioneer in Nonviolent Protest, Dies at 95,” Nashville Tennessean, June 11, 2024, https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2024/06/10/james-lawson-towering-civil-rights-activist-pioneer-nonviolent-protest-nashville-memphis-dies-at-95/74048239007/.

The Shreveport Journal, October 11, 1960

“The Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., 1928–2024 | the Nation,” The Nation, June 12, 2024, https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/james-lawson-obituary/.

“‘I’ve Been To the Mountaintop’ By Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” AFSCME, n.d., https://www.afscme.org/about/history/mlk/mountaintop.

“The Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., 1928–2024 | the Nation,” The Nation, June 12, 2024, https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/james-lawson-obituary/.

Tennessean, “Civil Rights Advocate James Lawson Was Rooted in Faith,” March 2, 2017.

Elliott, Debbie. “The Rev. James Lawson, Key Architect of the Civil Rights Movement, Dies at 95.” Connecticut Public, June 10, 2024. https://www.ctpublic.org/2024-06-10/the-rev-james-lawson-key-architect-of-the-civil-rights-movement-dies-at-95.

ICNC. “James Lawson Institute: A Movement School Bridging Past and Present | ICNC,” April 20, 2021. https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/blog_post/james-lawson-institute-a-movement-school-bridging-past-and-present/.

“Lawson, James M., Jr. | Encyclopedia.com,” n.d. https://www.encyclopedia.com/african-american-focus/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/lawson-james-m-jr.

Memphis Public Libraries. “This Week’s Profile: Rev. James Lawson – Memphis Public Libraries,” July 17, 2018. https://www.memphislibrary.org/diversity/sanitation-strike-exhibit/sanitation-strike-exhibit-march-17-to-23-edition/this-weeks-profile-rev-james-lawson/.

Newspapers.com. “James Lawson Shreveport,” October 11, 1960. https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-shreveport-journal-james-lawson-shre/149086087/.

Owens, Ann Marie Deer. “Vanderbilt University Special Collections Acquires New Lawson Photographs.” Vanderbilt University, October 27, 2020. https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2020/10/27/vanderbilt-university-special-collections-acquires-new-lawson-photographs/.

SNCC Digital Gateway. “Jim Lawson Conducts Nonviolence Workshops in Nashville – SNCC Digital Gateway,” July 14, 2020. https://snccdigital.org/events/jim-lawson-conducts-nonviolent-workshops-in-nashville/.

Tamburin, Adam, and Rau, Nate. “Rev. James Lawson, Teacher of The Civil Rights Movement, Dead at 95.” Axios Nashville, June 10, 2024. https://www.axios.com/local/nashville/2024/06/10/james-lawson-dead-obituary.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. “Lawson, James M.,” n.d. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/lawson-james-m.

The Nation. “The Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., 1928–2024 | the Nation,” June 12, 2024. https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/james-lawson-obituary/.

The United Methodist Church. “James Lawson: Reflections on Life, Nonviolence, Civil Rights, MLK,” https://www.umc.org/en/content/james-lawson-reflections-on-life-nonviolence-civil-rights-mlk.

Tennessean, Heidi Hall. “Civil Rights Advocate James Lawson Was Rooted in Faith.” The Tennessean, March 2, 2017. https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2017/03/02/civil-rights-advocate-james-lawson-rooted-faith/98605166/.

Tennessean. “James Lawson, Towering Civil Rights Activist and Pioneer in Nonviolent Protest, Dies at 95.”

“Vanderbilt University Special Collections Acquires New Lawson Photographs.” Vanderbilt University, October 27, 2020. https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2020/10/27/vanderbilt-university-special-collections-acquires-new-lawson-photographs/.

Mik Barnes is a graduate student at LSU Shreveport. He and Jaclyn are both members of the KTAL, LSU Shreveport, and Red River Radio Caddo Parish Civil Rights Heritage Trail Project team.

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