Rev. James M. Lawson, Jr. Memoir Launch Celebration

NONVIOLENT: My Life of Resistance, Agitation, and Love by Reverend James Lawson, Jr. and Emily Yellin

Vanderbilt University, in collaboration with the James Lawson Institute for Research and Study of Nonviolent Movements, Dialogue Vanderbilt, and co-author Emily Yellin celebrate the launch of a new book honoring the life and legacy of Rev. Reverend James M. Lawson Jr., one of the most influential architects of the modern civil rights movement and a global teacher of nonviolence. 

This celebratory book launch will feature musical performances, dialogue with Rev. Lawson’s son, John Lawson, and the co-author, Emily Yellin. The program will highlight how Lawson’s legacy continues to inform contemporary conversations around justice, nonviolence, and collective action in times of social and political uncertainty. 

The event will take place at the Woolworth Theatre in downtown Nashville, a landmark of the Civil Rights Movement. The Woolworth Theatre is a historic site of the 1960 Nashville lunch counter sit-ins. This powerful site of student-led nonviolent resistance is a very fitting setting to celebrate and honor Reverend Lawson’s lifelong commitment to nonviolent social change and his enduring impact at Vanderbilt University and beyond.