United for Peace of Pierce County, WA - We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy.

Rev. James Lawson, 79, who was one of the principal theoreticians and tacticians of the American civil rights movement and who continues to train activists in nonviolence, will speak three times in Tacoma on Feb. 25, 26, and 27. -- "Speaking to Lawson is the closest most of us will ever come to speaking with Martin Luther King, Jr., who called him the leading theorist of nonviolence in the United States," says Prof. Michael Honey of the Univ. of Washington-Tacoma, author of Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign (Norton, 2007). -- The three titles of Lawson's appearances in Tacoma: "Where Do We Go from Here?" — "Dialogue on Economic Justice and the Church" — "Dialogue on the Philosophy and Practice of Nonviolence." -- More information below....

WHAT: Three talks: On Monday, "Where Do We Go from Here?" -- On Tuesday, "Dialogue on Economic Justice and the Church" -- On Wednesday, "Dialogue on the Philosophy and Practice of Nonviolence"
WHO: Rev. James Lawson
WHEN: Mon., Feb. 25, at 7:00 p.m. — Tues., Feb. 26, 12:00 noon-1:30 p.m. — Wed., Feb. 27, at 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Monday at Shiloh Baptist Church, 1211 South "I" St. — Tuesday at St. John Baptist Church, 2001 South "J" St. (at 20th) — Wednesday at BHS Room 106 at University of Washington Tacoma, above the UW Book Store, 19th and Pacific

Parking is available on the street and in the Associated Ministries lot at 13th and "I."

African-American Methodist minister James Lawson worked as King’s educational director and taught nonviolent direct action to start the student sit-in movement, the freedom rides, and campaigns in Birmingham and Chicago and Memphis, where King died in 1968. Lawson has remained active ever since, and is a rousing as well as a thoughtful speaker.

How can clergy and church members and advocates for workers and the poor combine forces? Rev. Lawson led church support for King in the historic Memphis sanitation strike, in Los Angeles as part of the Justice For Janitors union organizing of Latino, Black, and immigrant workers in the 1990s, and walks with union, church, and social justice leaders everywhere.

BHS Room 106 at University of Washington Tacoma, above the UW Book Store, 19th and Pacific.

Lawson put aside his ministerial deferment and went to prison as an conscientious objector to the Korean War in the 1950s. Following the teachings of Jesus, Gandhi, Muste, and King, he has followed a nonviolent path throughout most of his 79 years. Learn and discuss how nonviolence can be used to put young people and others on a path toward life-long pursuit of justice and personal fulfillment, to end war and create a better world.

Co-Sponsors: Associated Ministries; Black Student Union -- UW Tacoma; Fred and Dorothy Haley Professorship -- UW Tacoma; A. Philip Randolph Institute -- Tacoma Chapter; Tacoma Ministerial Alliance -- University of Washington Graduate Program -- Walker-Ames Scholar -- Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies

During Black History Month, February 25-27, Rev. James Lawson will talk and engage in scholarly work and dialogue with students, faculty, and the religious and labor community in Tacoma. Activists and scholars of the civil rights movement know Lawson as one of its most influential figures, and he is also one of the most profound labor advocates in the church. Speaking to Lawson is the closest most of us will ever come to speaking with Martin Luther King, Jr., who called him the leading theorist of nonviolence in the United States.

Rev. Lawson, an African-American Methodist minister, was born in Ohio in 1928. The son of a Methodist circuit rider who resisted the Klan with a gun at his side, Lawson instead chose nonviolence as his weapon and became one of its leading advocates. Lawson went to Baldwin Wallace College in Ohio and met pacifist labor and civil rights organizer A.J. Muste, and went to prison for draft refusal during the Korean War, even though he could have avoided the draft with a ministerial deferment. He explored Africa and served as a missionary in India, where he studied Gandhi.

He later attended Oberlin College and met Martin Luther King, who asked him to come south to teach nonviolence as his education director. Lawson did so and helped to originate the Nashville sit-in movement, the freedom rides, and many of the major civil rights struggles in the South, going to jail repeatedly. Vanderbilt University expelled him from its Divinity School for his activism, so Lawson graduated instead with a Master's degree in theology from Boston University, King’s alma mater. Vanderbilt soon regretted its decision and has now appointed him as Distinguished University Professor, and he is teaching courses there on civil rights history.

Lawson led ministers and community groups in the sanitation strike of 1968 in Memphis, where he was pastor at Centenary Church, one of the largest black Methodist churches in the South. Lawson later moved to Los Angeles to pastor Homan Methodist Church and helped to organize Justice for Janitors, a union campaign among low-wage Black and Hispanic workers. One of the most important advocates of church support for activism on behalf of unions and the working poor, a brilliant speaker and deep thinker, Lawson remains one of this country’s most important cross-over leaders, supporting civil rights and labor and human emancipation.