Reverend James Lawson Speaks at Traditions

author : Nicholas Pace topic : civil rights

by Nicholas Pace

“Leadership has a real mystery to it,” said civil rights leader Reverend James Lawson during a recent speaking engagement in Olympia, “but if I had to choose a characteristic that defines the character of a leader, it is the ‘behavior in the struggle.’ When you think of positive leaders you generally get a visual of an action that they’ve done -- one example would be Rosa Parks’ refusal to go to the back of the bus.”

Speaking in Olympia shortly after the controversial events surrounding May Day 2008, Lawson’s remarks about the value of nonviolent direct action were well-timed.

Speaking to a diverse audience in several different Olympia venues, the alert and vigorous 80-year-old Lawson was able to give most of his answers and opinions from a broad point of view.

Much of the organization and methodology of the civil rights movement of the 60’s can be attributed to Lawson. Lawson himself is a Methodist minister, who worked closely with Martin Luther King, who was a Baptist minister. However, Lawson told me that in his view the civil rights and activist ethics were by no means fundamentalist. “The more important thing to consider when talking about faith is the growing confidence in your own life as an expression that’s more than what you are. That is the important thing to consider when incorporating religious teachings into your work.” Lawson would even state during the lecture at Evergreen, that one of the earliest non-violent activists was Jesus of Nazareth himself. “Everyone knows this except the Christians,” joked Lawson.

One thing Lawson strongly emphasized, not necessarily based on modesty but as a general lesson to the public, was that communal energy and collective wit and intelligence is often the key to resolving issues. “It wasn’t my idea to de-segregate Nashville. We all came up with it through community consensus.” It also should be noted that individualism is not something in activism that, according to Lawson, should be emphasized. “Don’t be individualist in your opinions as much if you want to make social change. It’s much better to workshop ideas.”

At the time when Lawson was visiting Olympia, the tension between students and police was a matter of public concern. Much of the community in Olympia has begun to feel antagonistic towards the students of Evergreen State College; according to Lawson, it’s imperative to approach these tensions and conflicts not with hatred but with non-violent tactics. He also mentioned that one method towards compromise when people are faced with police brutality is to find common ground. When Lawson was in L.A. during the seventies when racial profiling was a major issue, it was through dialogue, not violent tactics, that Lawson and his colleagues were able to get the police and firefighter unions to support their movement.

Lawson strongly emphasized to the Evergreen students that one of education’s top priorities is to counterattack violence with education, as well as sexism, racism, and discrimination. And “it’s not going to be easy,” he warned. “No matter who you are, if you’re going to fight injustice non-violently, you are going to face dissent.” Lawson noted that the educational system in the U.S. needs to take a deliberate role in providing opportunities for positive leadership, but due to many universities and colleges being very capitalistic, these opportunities do not materialize.

“The grand experiment of most of civil rights movement was to reverse the ‘ancient wrong’ using materials from grass-roots methods, such as Satyagraha.” Gandhi coined the term Satyagraha, a Sanskrit term meaning “the firmness of truth,” to describe his philosophy of nonviolent resistance. Lawson studied Satyagraha while serving as a Methodist missionary in Nagpur, India. Lawson cautions that “in order for the movement to gain ground, there must be analysis and organization.” Lawson believes the best example of this was the bus boycott movement in Montgomery, in 1955. “The news of this movement was front-page everywhere. I was in Nagpur, India doing missionary work at the time, but news of this was everywhere from Africa to South America.”

During the lecture at Evergreen, I was able to ask Lawson what he thought of the the U.S. criminal justice system. Lawson responded with “The criminal justice system in the U.S. is criminal. The district attorneys in this country haven’t been thorough enough with investigations, particularly since we since have old methods of punishment which most countries have abandoned, the most famous being the death penalty. Criminal justice like any social issue is an important issue and people can move it towards a progressive future by visiting prisons, abolishing private prisons, and through seeing the justice system through less of a narrow mind. One sad statistic in America is that police studies have shown that four civilians are shot a week that were innocent and un-armed.” Lawson also mentioned that the political pressure which leads to unfair criminal justice laws must be refocused. “When Americans are asked how they want to spend their tax dollars, they are usually the same topics such as health care, housing, education, transportation, or other basic necessities.”

Lawson emphasized that America is in one of the worst ethical and moral situations in a long time, and that we, as a nation, need to become collectively smarter. “The weakness of today’s activism is the lack of communal energy. Individualism can disrupt that.” However, despite these challenges, Lawson continues to emphasize that opportunity is still available no matter what might hold you back. When addressing the college students he stated: “I recognized that young people in colleges who were audacious enough were prime for being trained in non-violence.” At one point a student asked Lawson whether he viewed the younger generation as the only people who could replace some of the flaws that elderly, in particular, the ones in charge of the government still want to hold on to. Lawson responded with: “Suspicion of the government is at sometimes essential, however there are many elderly who are supportive of change.”

One of the things that I think summed Lawson’s speech was when referring to what we as citizens who are actively inclined to make change should do. “I want to suggest to you that you explore the world, the city, the unions, the communities, and consider non-violence especially as it’s the only way for our humanity to survive.”