FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER LAWSON SPEAKS WITH LMU STUDENTS ABOUT NON-VIOLENCE AND THE FORMATION OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

April 15, 2004 - Civil rights leader James M. Lawson, Jr., colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered an address on "The Formation of the Civil Rights Movement" as part of Loyola Marymount University's "Dialogues on Diversity" program on April 14.

Though not as well known as some of his contemporaries, Lawson was a leading figure in the civil rights movement. On the eve of his assassination, Martin Luther King called Lawson "the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world."

Lawson, along with King, founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in 1960. He utilized nonviolent protests in the tradition of Gandhi in an effort to stop downtown Nashville segregation at lunch counters in the early 1960s while a Vanderbilt Divinity School student. As a result of his activities, Lawson was expelled from Vanderbilt. Thirty-six years after his expulsion, Lawson was honored with a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the same university for his actions.

He coordinated the Freedom Ride in 1961 and was the advance staff person for the Birmingham campaign in 1963. He also was coordinator of the Meredith march in Mississippi in 1966, and participated in the 1961-67 Chicago march effort. Lawson was chair of the strategy committee for the Memphis sanitation strike, which brought national attention to the scene and during which King was assassinated.

Lawson, a retired Los Angeles Methodist pastor, has remained outspoken and active in fighting for peace and against racism throughout his career. In Los Angeles, he hosted a weekly call-in show, "Lawson Live," where he discussed social and human rights issues affecting minority communities. He spoke out against racism, and challenged the Cold War and U.S. military involvement in Angola, Cuba, and Central America. Even after his retirement, Lawson protested with the Janitors for Justice in Los Angeles, and with gay and lesbian Methodists in Cleveland.

"Dialogues on Diversity" is a series of interactive programs, lectures and activities designed to help students build leadership skills and intercultural competencies. The program is sponsored by the James Irvine Foundation.

The James Irvine Foundation was established in 1937 as a trustee of the charitable trust of James Irvine, a California agricultural pioneer, to promote the general welfare of the people of California.

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