Join us for an extraordinary evening at the National Civil Rights Museum as co-author Emily Yellin and John Lawson discuss Nonviolent: A Memoir of Resistance, Agitation, and Love – the posthumous memoir of Rev. James Lawson Jr., the man Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called “the leading strategist and theorist of nonviolence in the world.”

This riveting firsthand account takes you inside the campaigns that changed America: the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, the 1963 Birmingham campaign, and the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers’ strike. Rev. Lawson trained John Lewis and the Freedom Riders in nonviolent direct action that went beyond rejecting physical violence; it meant dismantling systemic injustice and recognizing the inherent dignity of every person.

From his time in prison for resisting the Korean War draft to studying independence movements in India and Africa, to leading struggles for economic justice and human rights into the 21st century, Rev. Lawson’s nine-decade journey shows us that the work of creating the beloved community continues today.