Playbook for Justice: James Lawson and the Nonviolent Movement in America

In the 1950s, Reverend James Lawson wanted to build a fairer world. After learning about Mohandas Gandhi’s successful nonviolent resistance to injustice in India, he knew something similar could work in the United States. He trained other young civil rights activists to become nonviolent “athletes” who refused to play by unfair rules. Strategic nonviolence became the cornerstone of the US Civil Rights Movement and led to many of its victories.

The story of nonviolent activism doesn’t start or end with Lawson, though. Strategic nonviolence helped shape early US history and remains instrumental to ongoing civil and human rights campaigns. And it starts at the individual level, with small, everyday practices.