Oral History Interview with James Lawson, October 24, 1983. Interview F-0029. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007).
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Abstract
James M. Lawson was a key ally to Martin Luther King Jr. and also an important theoretician and practitioner of nonviolent protest. After briefly summarizing his childhood in Pennsylvania, Lawson describes how he became involved with the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen through activist preacher Will D. Campbell. Lawson's activism began during his time in Nashville, Tennessee. He relates how the Fisk and Vanderbilt students learned nonviolent protest, and describes how he helped organize and execute the Nashville sit-ins. Lawson devotes much of the interview to discussions of his relationship with various civil rights activists, including Kelly Miller Smith, Nelle Morton, Myles Horton, James Dombrowski, and James Holloway. Though Lawson was expelled from Vanderbilt because of his involvement with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and his participation in the sit-ins, he remembers that several of the faculty members offered him a great amount of personal support. He also reconciled with some of his opponents later in life. Lawson closes the interview by asserting that the actions of the 1950s and 1960s emerged from the union and labor rights movements of the 1930s and 1940s.
Excerpts
William Campbell and the Committee of Southern Churchmen
Origins of and training for the Nashville sit-ins
White involvement in the Nashville sit-in
Kelly Miller Smith and the Nashville Christian Leadership Conference
Lawson's memories of Nelle Morton
Lawson's relationship with white activists
Lawson's impressions of Will Campbell
The Committee of Southern Churchmen and their publication Katallgete
Lawson's experiences at Vanderbilt
Origins of the classic phase of the civil rights movement
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Finding aid to the Southern Oral History Program Collection
Database of all Southern Oral History Program Collection interviews
Subjects
Southern States--Race relations
Fellowship of Southern Churchmen
African Americans--Religion
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