Ninety-one years of life and decades of civil rights activism have not weakened the fire in the belly of the Rev. James Lawson.Â
The former mentor to young civil rights demonstrators, who taught the tactics and strategy of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience, delivered a forceful eulogy for the late Rep. John Lewis at a funeral in Atlanta Thursday. Speaking in between former presidents, Lawson recalled the time he and Lewis shared together as part of the movement in Nashville and, in particular, the sit-in effort to desegregate the city's downtown lunch counters. That effort resulted in Lewis being arrested multiple times.Â
Lawson's eulogy is an abbreviated lesson in Nashville's role in the civil rights movement. It was also an act of resistance against anyone who would try to celebrate Lewis while obfuscating the things he spent his life fighting for and the "poisons" he spent his fighting against — "racism, sexism, violence, plantation capitalism."Â
Watch the whole thing below.Â
Rev. James Lawson trained many future leaders of the civil rights movement, including a young John Lewis, in the practice of nonviolence. Lawson spoke at Lewis' funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and vowed, "We will not be quiet." Watch his full remarks.
