I 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 8691 
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Reverend James Morris Lawson, 
Jr., in recognition of his contributions to the United States through 
the promotion of nonviolence during the Civil Rights movement and 
beyond. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
AUGUST 9, 2022 
Mr. KHANNA (for himself, Mr. COHEN, Mr. CLYBURN, Mr. CLEAVER, and Ms. 
BASS) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 
on Financial Services 
A BILL 
To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Reverend James 
Morris Lawson, Jr., in recognition of his contributions 
to the United States through the promotion of non-
violence during the Civil Rights movement and beyond. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Reverend James 
Lawson, Jr., Congressional Gold Medal Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) Reverend James Morris Lawson, Jr. (‘‘Rev. 
Lawson’’), was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on 
September 22, 1928, to Reverend James Morris 
Lawson, Sr., and Philane May Cover. 
(2) Rev. Lawson received his local preacher’s li-
cense in 1947, the same year he graduated from 
high school. 
(3) While attending Baldwin-Wallace College, 
Rev. Lawson joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation, 
the oldest pacifist organization in the United States 
and an advocate of nonviolent resistance to racism, 
as well as the Congress of Racial Equality, where he 
was exposed to the nonviolent teachings of world-re-
nowned civil rights and spiritual leader Mohandas K. 
Gandhi (‘‘Gandhi’’). 
(4) From 1953 to 1956, Rev. Lawson served as 
a Methodist missionary at Hislop College in Nagpur, 
India, where he continued his studies of satyagraha, 
Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolent resistance, and 
met with associates and fellow students of Gandhi. 
(5) Rev. Lawson was instrumental in bringing 
the message of Gandhi to the United States. 
(6) Rev. Lawson viewed segregation in the 
United States as ‘‘much like the ‘untouchables’ of 
India’’ and was inspired by the view of Gandhi that 
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it could be through African Americans that ‘‘the un-
adulterated message of nonviolence will be delivered 
to the world’’. 
(7) In 1956, Rev. Lawson enrolled in the 
Oberlin School of Theology in Ohio, where he first 
met Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (‘‘Dr. King’’), 
who urged Rev. Lawson to move to the South to 
spread his teachings on nonviolence, saying ‘‘Don’t 
wait! Come now! You’re badly needed. We don’t have 
anyone like you!’’. 
(8) In 1957, Rev. Lawson answered the call of 
Dr. King, moving to Nashville, Tennessee, and en-
rolling at Vanderbilt Divinity School as the second 
African-American student in its history. 
(9) Rev. Lawson opened a Fellowship of Rec-
onciliation field office, became the southern secretary 
for the organization, and held seminars to train vol-
unteers in Gandhian tactics of nonviolent direct ac-
tion. 
(10) Rev. Lawson was an advisor for the Little 
Rock Nine, teaching the students, in the living room 
of Arkansas NAACP Chair Daisy Bates, how to re-
sist their opponents using the ‘‘superior weapons’’ 
offered by nonviolence. 
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(11) Rev. Lawson led the Nashville sit-in cam-
paign of 1960 that successfully challenged ‘‘Jim 
Crow’’ and trained a new generation of civil rights 
activists. 
(12) In 1960, the Southern Christian Leader-
ship Conference, led by Ella Baker, organized the 
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, with 
Rev. Lawson writing the statement of purpose for 
the organization and delivering the keynote speech 
at the organization’s founding meeting in April of 
that year. 
(13) Rev. Lawson, and the activists he trained, 
organized many famous campaigns, including the 
Freedom Rides, Freedom Schools, 1963 March on 
Washington, Mississippi Freedom Summer, Mis-
sissippi Freedom Democratic Party, 1963 Bir-
mingham Children’s Crusade, 1965 Selma Voting 
Rights Movement, and 1966 Chicago Open Housing 
Movement. 
(14) In 1968, Rev. Lawson chaired the strike 
committee for the Memphis Sanitation Workers, a 
campaign that advanced the slogan ‘‘I Am A Man’’ 
and was the first successful effort to organize Afri-
can-American municipal workers in the South. 
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(15) Dr. King lauded Rev. Lawson as the 
‘‘leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the 
world’’ and civil rights leader Diane Nash stated 
that Rev. Lawson’s ‘‘impact was fundamental and 
tremendous. I think that he, more than anyone else 
really, is why the civil rights movement was non-
violent’’. 
(16) In 1974, Rev. Lawson became pastor of 
Holman United Methodist Church in Los Angeles, 
where he continued his nonviolent advocacy for ra-
cial equality and social justice, including through 
Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, the 
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the 
American Civil Liberties Union, Interfaith Commu-
nities United for Peace and Justice, the National 
Committee for Worker Justice, and many others. 
(17) Rev. Lawson received dozens of awards, 
honorary degrees, and lectureships, including the 
National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Award, 
Vanderbilt University’s Walter R. Murray Distin-
guished Alumnus Award, Harvard University’s 
Henry Luce Lectureship, and recognition for his 
leadership and lifetime achievements from the Con-
gressional Black Caucus Foundation and the Amer-
ican Civil Liberties Union. 
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