Civil Rights Movement

With his deep understanding of nonviolent protest, the Rev. James M. Lawson (1928–2024) showed us the way forward for fighting injustice and left a legacy of courage and compassion. Read More

The Rev. James Morris Lawson Jr., a leader of the Civil Rights Movement who trained scores of activists during his time in Nashville—many of whom went on to prominence—and whose expulsion from Vanderbilt in 1960 led to national headlines and prompted some faculty members to resign in protest, died Sunday, June 9, in Los Angeles. He was 95. Read More

The event, hosted by The Vanderbilt Project on Unity and American Democracy and the Rogers Center for the American Presidency, is scheduled to take place Tuesday, Feb. 20, at 5 p.m., and is free and open to the public; registration is required to attend. Read More

The Bishop Joseph Johnson Black Cultural Center resumed its annual Black History Immersion Excursion earlier this month with a tour of key civil rights sites in Alabama. Read More

We Shall Overcome: Civil Rights and the Nashville Press, 1957-1968, a photography exhibition on loan to Vanderbilt Divinity School from the Frist Art Museum, illuminates key moments in Nashville’s struggle for racial equality, including the leadership of the Rev. James Lawson. Read More

The Vanderbilt community will welcome a diverse panel of renowned civil rights and social justice activists, journalists, historians and scholars for an examination of Nashville’s role as an intellectual center of the struggle for racial justice, then and now. The daylong virtual symposium will be held on Friday, March 26, starting at 9 a.m. CT and is open to the public. Read More

Vanderbilt leaders are reflecting on the life and legacy of veteran civil rights activist Kwame Lillard, who died Dec. 20 in Nashville. As recently as January 2020, Lillard shared his firsthand experiences in the civil rights movement with Vanderbilt students as part of the university’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Series. Read More

Tammy L. Kernodle, professor of musicology at Miami University of Ohio, will present an interactive program exploring how black women musicians have used music as a means of documenting and promoting the struggle for equality and social justice in America. The event is scheduled from 6 to 8 p.m. Feb. 21 at the Wond'ry. Read More

The annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day trip, now in its third year, provides members of the Vanderbilt community with the opportunity to learn more about the history of the civil rights movement and current efforts to further King’s legacy. Read More

Innovative thinking in the digital age, women in the civil rights movement and acting for opera are among the winter 2019 classes offered by Vanderbilt’s Osher Institute for Lifelong Learners. Read More

Political surveillance of civil rights activists is the focus of a Seigenthaler Series talk with author and journalist Marc Perrusquia at the First Amendment Center Oct. 15. Read More

Standing on the dais from which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once spoke, Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos charged college students gathered Saturday at Fisk University to live out the civil rights leader's legacy. Read More

Three women who were civil rights activists during the 1960s will reflect on their roles in the movement during the March 24 panel discussion "At the Forefront of Freedom: The Women of Selma." Read More

Diane Nash, one of the most respected leaders of the civil rights movement, will deliver a lecture Thursday, Feb. 25, named in honor of Walter Murray, a Vanderbilt alumnus, who made history by blazing a trail at the university. Read More