Reverend James M. Lawson Jr. speaks at a 2015 TEDx event in Los Angeles, California.

Lawson was instrumental in shaping America’s Nonviolent Civil Rights Movement. After incarceration for refusing to report to Korean War draft, he traveled to India to study Ghandi’s principles of nonviolence. After be- ing introduced to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and moving to Nashville, he mentored a number of young students and future civil rights leaders at Vanderbilt, Fisk University, and other area schools in the tactics of nonviolent direct action. His students were instrumental is movements such as the 1963 March on Washington, the 1965 Selma Voting Rights Movement, and The Freedom Rides, to name a few. His likeness was portrayed in the 2013 motion picture The Butler by actor Jesse Williams. The movie notes Lawson’s training sessions during the civil rights protests of the 1950s and 1960s.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx