Born in Union Town, Pennsylvania on September 22, 1928, and raised in Massillon, Ohio, Reverend James Lawson Jr., is considered one of the principal architects of the civil rights movement. A conscientious objector during the Korean War, Lawson was sentenced to prison for one year. After his release, he served for 3 years as a Methodist missionary in India. He studied Gandhi's strategy of nonviolence in Nagpur, India at Hyslip College from 1952 to 1956. Described by Dr. King as "the leading nonviolence theorist in the world," Dr. King invited Rev. Lawson while still a student at Oberlin College Graduate School of Theology to become the Director of Nonviolent Education for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957.

Rev. Lawson relocated to the South to lead workshops on nonviolence in such cities as Little Rock, Arkansas, Jackson, Mississippi, Knoxville, Tennessee, and Greensboro, North Carolina. From 1958-59, as Southern Secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Rev. Lawson became the principal organizer of the historic Nashville Sit-In Movement. In 1961, he led the first wave of freedom riders into Jackson, Mississippi.

Cited by Reverend Jesse Jackson as the "teacher of the Movement," Rev. Lawson has been credited with influencing a generation of prominent civil rights activists including C.T. Vivian, Diane Nash, Congressman John Lewis, and Bernard Lafayette.

Lawson has lectured nationally and taught at several institutions, including Harvard, UCLA, USC and the Claremont School of Theology and formerly served as the National Chairperson for the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Currently, Rev. Lawson is Pastor Emeritus of the Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, California and continues to work with the working poor, community organizations and interfaith-coalitions for justice and peace.