Civil Rights Leader Rev. James Lawson Jr. Has Died At 95, Family Says

Lawson was a close adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and a proponent of nonviolent protest.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — The Rev. James Lawson Jr., an apostle of nonviolent protest who schooled activists to withstand brutal reactions from white authorities as the civil rights movement gained traction, has died, his family said Monday. He was 95.

His family said Monday that Lawson died on Sunday in Los Angeles, where he spent decades working as a pastor, labor movement organizer and university professor.

Lawson was a close adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who called him “the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world.”

Lawson met King in 1957, after spending three years in India soaking up knowledge about Mohandas K. Ghandi’s independence movement. King would travel to India himself two years later, but at the time, he had only read about Ghandi in books.

The two Black pastors ― both 28 years old ― quickly bonded over their enthusiasm for the Indian leader’s ideas, and King urged Lawson to put them into action in the American South.