The Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., the legendary leader and tactician of nonviolence within the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, which Lawson referred to as the “Rosa Parks-Martin Luther King, Jr.” movement, passed away June 9 at the age of 95.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called Lawson “the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world.”

He successfully mobilized students in nonviolent direct-action campaigns against inhumane segregationist laws during the 1950s and 1960s in Nashville, Tennessee, and other cities in the U.S. South. Lawson studied Mahatma Gandhi’s strategies of nonviolence and satyagraha, and he used them creatively to confront the violence of racist laws, labor exploitation, xenophobia and gender discrimination.

To read more of Dr. Veena Howard's reflections, visit the College of Arts and Humanities blog post.