Born: September 22, 1928, Uniontown, PA

Education: Baldwin-Wallace College, 1947–52, B.A.; Oberlin School of Theology, 1956–58; Vanderbilt Divinity School, 1958–60; Boston University, S.T.M., 1960

Lawson instilled strong familial values on justice. Joining the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) and Congress of Racial Equality in college, he resisted the draft, was imprisoned (1949–52), and studied Gandhian nonviolence while a Methodist missionary to India.

During graduate study at Oberlin, he met Martin Luther King, Jr., who urged him to join the southern freedom movement. “We don't have anyone like you down there,” King said, adding “Come as quickly as you can. We really need you.”

Lawson moved to Nashville and Vanderbilt. He launched civil disobedience workshops, which led to the Nashville Student Movement, sit-ins against segregation, and his expulsion from divinity school. Still, he mentored many civil rights student activists, including Diane Nash and John Lewis. “Lawson was arming us, preparing us, and planting in us a sense of both rightness and righteousness,” Lewis stated. “A soul force that would see us through the ugliness and pain that lay ahead” (Lewis, 1998, p. 78). Cofounder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Lawson wrote its mission statement. He also joined the Freedom Rides and organized the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's nonviolent campaigns in Albany, Georgia and elsewhere. Deservedly, he served as president of FOR (1994–2000) and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt (2006).