Ministerand Activist

James M. Lawson, Jr.’s career as a United Methodist minister began at Scott Chapel in Shelbyville, Tennessee, in 1960. He was working at Centenary Methodist Church in Memphis in 1968, the time of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and moved again in 1974 to Holman UMC in Los Angeles, a large congregation where he was pastor until his retirement in 1999. In each location, Reverend Lawson built outreach efforts for peace and social justice as essential ministries of the churches he led. He has remained a dedicated minister in the United Methodist Church even as he sometimes has fiercely challenged its assumptions and practices.

[James Lawson, Police, and Others in Los Angeles Protest]
Osei Photography, c. 1990-1995
James M. Lawson, Jr. Papers
Vanderbilt University Special Collections

Reverend Lawson combined his ministerial work with activism that could include as pictured here a protest in Los Angeles with other activists in the midst of a police presence. He considered these actions as essential parts of his calling as a clergyman.

[James Lawson Baptizing Andrea Neal at Centenary United Methodist Church, Memphis, TN]
Photograph, March 27, 1966
James M. Lawson, Jr. Papers
Vanderbilt University Special Collections

James Lawson was the minister at Centenary United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee during the years 1962 – 1974. In addition to his usual pastoral duties he also chaired the strategy committee for the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike in 1968. He invited Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to come to Memphis in support of the sanitation workers, and it was on a visit to Memphis that Dr. King was assassinated by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel, now the National Civil Rights Museum.

[James Lawson with Megaphone at a Protest Event]
Photograph, undated
James M. Lawson, Jr. Papers
Vanderbilt University Special Collections

“We Should Trust the Women to Do the Choosing”
James M. Lawson and Ignacio Castuera
The Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2000
James M. Lawson, Jr. Papers
Vanderbilt University Special Collections

James Lawson was often invited to speak and to write on civil rights issues.  He travelled all over the country to present his message on nonviolent strategies for the advancement of human and civil rights for all citizens. Here with his colleague and fellow UMC Minister and social activist Ignacio Castuera they advocate for a woman’s right to choose abortion in a commentary in the Los Angeles Times.

[Ministerial Stole Embroidered “Turn on to Life”]
Gift of John T. and Jean Fisher
On loan from the Reverend James M. Lawson, Jr.

John and Jean Fisher, friends of the Reverend Lawson from Memphis, presented him with this ministerial stole embroidered with Jean’s handiwork “Turn on to Life”.