NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Rev. James Lawson, civil rights and peace activist and a key figure in Vanderbilt University‘s history, will deliver the keynote address for the university’s 2006 Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Series Jan. 16-20.
All events during the series are free and open to the public.
The series kicks off Monday, Jan 16, with several events including Vanderbilt medical and nursing students participating in volunteer activities with selected agencies throughout Nashville. A candlelight vigil, sponsored by the university’s Organization of Black Graduate and Professional Students, will be held that evening at 7 p.m. in Vanderbilt’s Benton Chapel.
The vigil will feature remarks by Forrest Harris, president of American Baptist College and director of Vanderbilt’s Kelly Miller Smith Institute on the African-American Church, and Bishop Jerry Maynard, pastor of Cathedral of Praise Church of God in Christ in Nashville and chief operating officer of the Church of God in Christ. The event will also include performances by Vanderbilt’s Rhythm & Roots dance ensemble and the Cathedral of Praise Church of God in Christ choir.
Lawson’s keynote address, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?,” will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 17, in Benton Chapel. Parking for the event is available for $1 per half-hour in spaces 52-170 of Wesley Place Garage, located on Scarritt Place off of 21st Avenue South.
While on campus, Lawson will also be honored by the Vanderbilt Alumni Association on Jan. 18 as the university’s 2005 Distinguished Alumnus. The award was established in 1996 to recognize alumni who have furthered Vanderbilt’s mission globally through outstanding achievement and service.
Other events during the series include a talk by Kevin Stephens, director of the City of New Orleans Health Department, titled “The Role and Impact of Socio-Economic Status During a Disaster,” at noon in Room 208 of Light Hall on the Vanderbilt Medical Center’s campus. On Friday, Jan. 20, Kimberly LeMarque, an actress and assistant professor at Tennessee State University, will bring to life the woman who became known as the “mother of the civil rights movement” in “A Tribute to Rosa Parks” at 3 p.m. in Benton Chapel.
Lawson was a student at the Oberlin Graduate School of Theology in Ohio in the spring of 1957 when he met the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Lawson had just returned from India, where he had been a Methodist missionary, coaching and continuing his study of the Gandhian movement. King, who called Lawson “the leading nonviolence theorist in the world,” urged him to head south immediately to work in the struggle for civil rights.
Lawson became the southern secretary for the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), the oldest pacifist organization in the nation, and later moved to Nashville to continue his studies at Vanderbilt because FOR had more members in Nashville than other Southern cities. He organized the historic sit-ins by black students that eventually ended the racial segregation of lunch counters in downtown Nashville.
In spring 1960, the executive committee of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust voted to expel Lawson from the university for his role in the civil rights movement. The expulsion generated national headlines and prompted members of Vanderbilt’s divinity faculty to resign in protest. After weeks of tense negotiations, a compromise was finally worked out to allow Lawson to complete his degree from Vanderbilt, but he chose instead to transfer to Boston University.
Lawson went on to serve as director of nonviolent education for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, as pastor of Centenary United Methodist Church in Memphis and as chairman of the strategy committee for the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike in 1968, during which King was assassinated. He is pastor emeritus of Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles where he served for 25 years before retiring in 1999 and is president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Los Angeles.
For a complete listing of events scheduled for the 2006 Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Series at Vanderbilt, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/mlk/.
Schedule of Events
Chaos or Community: The Legacies of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Series
Vanderbilt University
Jan. 16-20, 2006
All events are free and open to the public.
For more information and updates, visit www.vanderbilt.edu/mlk/
Monday, Jan. 16, Noon
Eleventh Hour Labourers
208 Light Hall, Vanderbilt Medical Center campus
James Hildreth, director, Comprehensive Center for Health Disparities Research in HIV; professor, Department of Internal Medicine and Department of Biomedical Sciences Meharry Medical College.
Student community service following lecture
Vanderbilt University medical and nursing students will participate in volunteer activities with selected agencies throughout the Nashville community.
Monday, Jan. 16, 3:30 p.m.
Race, Discrimination, and Equality in the 21st Century
Bennett Miller Room, Vanderbilt Law School, 2nd floor
R. Richard Banks, professor of law and Justin M. Roach, Jr. Faculty Scholar, Stanford Law School, Stanford University
Pay parking: $1 per half-hour (pay up front), Terrace Place Garage, spaces 52-170. Garage located on Terrace Place off of 21st Avenue South near Qdoba restaurant.
Monday, Jan. 16, 4:10 p.m.
We Speak Different Dialects: How Teens with Disabilities Think About Friendship, Schools, and Their Lives
Vanderbilt Kennedy Center/MRL Building, Room 241
Tom Weisner, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences and anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles
Pay parking: $1 per half-hour (pay up front), Wesley Place Garage, spaces 2-170. Garage located on Scarritt Place off of 21st Avenue South. Use entrance closest to 19th Avenue South.
Monday, Jan. 16, 7 p.m.
Candlelight Vigil
Benton Chapel, Vanderbilt Divinity School
Forrest Harris, assistant professor of the practice of ministry; director, Kelly Miller Smith Institute on the African- American Church, Vanderbilt University.
Bishop Jerry Maynard, pastor of Cathedral of Praise Church of God in Christ, Nashville, Tenn. and chief operating officer of the Church of God in Christ.
Jan. 16 Candlelight Vigil, cont.
Rhythm & Roots
Rhythm & Roots was founded at Vanderbilt in the fall of 1994 as a one-time Black History Month kick-off event. Under the direction of Cindy Young, one of the group’s founders, Rhythm & Roots now performs their own original choreography and drama pieces and is an avenue for Vanderbilt students to use their theatrical and musical gifts. Rhythm & Roots is dedicated to exploring the use of the performing arts as an expression of social complexities and as a catalyst for social change.
The Cathedral of Praise Church of God in Christ Choir will also perform.
Reception following the event
Pay parking: $1 per half –hour (pay up front), Wesley Place Garage, spaces 52-170. Garage located on Scarritt Place off of 21st Avenue South. Use entrance located closest to 19th Avenue South.
Tuesday, Jan. 17, 1 p.m.
Celebrating the Challenge
Averbuch Auditorium, Owen Graduate School of Management
Event hosted by the Owen Black Students Association
Pay parking: $1 per half-hour (pay up front), Terrace Place Garage, spaces 41-92 except those marked reserved. Garage located on Terrace Place off of 21st Avenue South near Qdoba restaurant.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Tuesday, Jan. 17, 7 p.m.
Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?
Benton Chapel
The Reverend James Lawson
The Reverend Lawson is the recipient of the Vanderbilt Alumni Association’s 2005 Distinguished Alumnus Award. He is a civil rights and peace activist, scholar, pastor of the Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles and has been called by Martin Luther King, Jr., “the leading nonviolence theorist in the world.”
Pay parking: $1 per half-hour (pay up front), Wesley Place Garage, spaces 52-170. Garage located on Scarritt Place off of 21st Avenue South. Use entrance closest to 19th Avenue South.
Thursday, Jan. 19, Noon
The Role and Impact of Socio-Economic Status During a Disaster
208 Light Hall, Vanderbilt Medical Center campus
Kevin Stephens, director, New Orleans Health Department
Reception to follow in North Lobby.
Thursday, Jan. 19, 2 p.m.
A Painterly Palette of My Life
Wyatt Center Rotunda, Peabody College
James Ransome, illustrator of more than 50 children’s books, has received the NAACP Image Award for Illustration and the Coretta Scott King Award from the American Library Association.
Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture and Changing Lives Award followed by reception.
Pay parking: $1 per half-hour (pay up front), Wesley Place Garage, spaces 52-170. Garage located on Scarritt Place off of 21st Avenue South. Use entrance located closest to 19th Avenue South.
Thursday, Jan. 19, 6-8 p.m.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Contemporary Black Mega-Church: A Panel Discussion
Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center Featuring:
Lewis V. Baldwin, professor of religious studies, Vanderbilt University
Michael, Joseph Brown, associate professor, Candler School of Theology, Emory University, and Vanderbilt graduate, class of 1990, Keri Day, Graduate Department of Religion, chaplain intern, Vanderbilt University, and other scholars
Friday, Jan. 20, 3-4 p.m.
A Tribute to Rosa Parks
Benton Chapel
Kimberly LaMarque, an actress and assistant professor at Tennessee State University, will bring to life the woman who became known as the “mother of the civil rights movement.” Through a self-written performance lecture, LaMarque recreates the life and character of Rosa Parks, who was arrested in 1955 in Montgomery, Ala., for refusing to give up her bus seat.