Rev. James Lawson was right, and all of us who truly care must do more to build beloved community wherever we are.
Civil rights icon James Lawson dies at the age of 95
Civil rights pioneer Reverend James Lawson Jr. has died at the age of 95. Described by Martin Luther King Jr. as a leading theorist of nonviolence, Lawson shaped the sit-in movement and organized the strike that brought Dr. King to Memphis.
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As a newspaper columnist, I learned many years ago that if you make a mistake in the space where you are allowed to express your opinion, you should admit that mistake.
And this is regardless of how long it takes to admit this mistake.
In this case, it was my criticism of the Reverend James M. Lawson Jr., the civil rights and peace activist and scholar who led the Nashville sit-in movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s and led the fight for social justice across America and elsewhere before his death in Los Angeles on Sunday, June 9, at the age of 95.
A quarter of a century ago, I had problems with Lawson’s decision on James Earl Ray
On Sunday, May 31, 1998, I wrote a column here criticizing Reverend Lawson and several other black clergy in Nashville for allowing a memorial service for convicted murderer James Earl Ray to be held at the Metropolitan Interdenominational Church, a predominantly black church, after Ray's death on April 23, 1998.
“Ray’s rites in the black church: what were they thinking?”
That was the headline of the column that I began with the words: “I didn't know where to turn. I felt uncomfortable. I felt like I didn't belong. I thought about leaving, but I didn't want to make a scene.”
“I had never experienced anything like it before. It prevented me from singing, even though I was in church – the house of God. I even found it difficult to bow my head in prayer.
“I attended the memorial service for James Earl Ray, the convicted murderer of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.”
When I asked Reverend Lawson on May 28, the day of the memorial service, why Ray's memorial service was held in a black church, one of the things he told me was, “Dwight, every person has a right to a proper funeral and burial, regardless of what they have accomplished in life, where they come from, or who they are.”
I interviewed James Earl Ray many times. He left no doubt about his guilt.
He added: “The black community has been the most important community in America for 380 years demanding freedom and justice for all. We demand that every American be recognized as a human being.”
I disagreed with Reverend Lawson's statements that day. I even wondered aloud if Ray's memorial service should have been held in a correctional facility chapel rather than at the Metropolitan Interdenominational Church in North Nashville.
Lawson challenged me to live MLK’s vision of a “beloved community”
Just a few months earlier, in January 1998, Reverend Lawson signed my copy of David Halberstam's book, The Children, which commemorates the early days of the Civil Rights Movement in Nashville and some of its participants, including Reverend Lawson, Diane Nash, John Lewis, Robert Churchwell Sr., Bernard Lafayette, Hank Thomas, and Candie Carawan, with the comment, “May your work bring forth the beloved community.”
The Beloved Community was a vision of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., which, according to Lewis Baldwin's There Is a Balm in Gilead, “called for and hoped for a fully integrated society based on love and justice, transcending race, gender, class, religion, nationality, and other artificial barriers.”
Every time I open my book, The Children, autographed by others such as John Lewis, Reverend CT Vivian, John Seigenthaler, Rodney Powell and Guy Carawan, I see Reverend Lawson's challenging words: “May your work produce the beloved community.”
Tennessee Voices, Episode 76: Dwight Lewis, retired reporter and columnist for the Tennessee
I have been reflecting on my 40-plus years as a newspaper journalist. Have I worked hard enough to help create this beloved community that so many still hope to see?
“We have not yet achieved the society of equality, liberty and justice for all,” Reverend Lawson told me by phone in January 2006 as he prepared to return to Nashville to receive an honor from Vanderbilt University after being expelled by the university's board of trustees in 1960 for his involvement in the civil rights movement. “And we have not yet overcome the internal obstacles that make it difficult for us to do so.”
Reverend Lawson was right, and all of us who truly care about the situation must do more to build a community of love wherever we are.
Dwight Lewis, a native of Knoxville, worked for 40 years as a reporter, columnist and editorial page editor for the Tennessean before retiring in 2011.
