Before boarding a bus for a tour of historic Nashville Civil Rights sites, local community members met at Vanderbilt Divinity School to learn about the School’s history with Civil Rights leader Rev. James Lawson Jr.
The tour was sponsored by the James Lawson Institute for the Research and Study of Nonviolent Movements and the Vanderbilt Divinity Library and included stops at Fisk University, First Baptist Church Capitol Hill and the Nashville Public Library Civil Rights Room.
“There is something important about seeing some of the physical spaces where these powerful moments happen in our history, and how we think about how these movements can give us guidance to where we are currently,” said Director of the James Lawson Institute, Taure Brown.
The bus tour provided an opportunity for Nashville and Vanderbilt community members to join the mission of the James Lawson Institute by walking the path of some of Nashville’s most important Civil Rights leaders and sites. Guided by Kashif Graham, outreach librarian for religion and theology at the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, the tour began and ended on Vanderbilt’s campus.
“Nashville has such a rich Civil Rights history, with predominately African American students at the center of a movement that changed our nation,” said Alyssa Adams, program coordinator for the James Lawson Institute and organizer of the event. “Providing access to experiences like this allows people to engage with history in ways that challenge, inspire and equip them to become thoughtful leaders who will carry that legacy forward.”
The tour highlighted the role of Fisk University, a distinguished Historically Black College and University, as home to many student leaders of Nashville’s sit-in movement, including Diane Nash and former U.S. Representative John Lewis.
Another key stop was to First Baptist Church Capitol Hill, where leaders like Rev. Dr. Shane B. Scott and historian David Ewing explained the history of the historic church. FBC Capitol Hill was pastored by Rev. Kelly Miller Smith Sr. and served as a central location for mobilization during the Civil Rights Movement.
At the Civil Rights Room at Nashville Public Library, members were introduced to Elliott Robinson of special collections and Rev. Edwin Sanders who provided an overview of the history of the Civil Rights Movement in Nashville.
Nashville emerged as a national leader in the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Guided by the philosophy of nonviolent resistance from leaders like Rev. James Lawson Jr., students and community leaders organized sit-ins, marches and economic boycotts to challenge racial segregation and inspired similar movements across the country.
This history of activism and nonviolent protest is important to the history of Nashville and to Vanderbilt itself.
In 1960, then student Rev. James Lawson was expelled from the University due to his organized sit-ins to desegregate lunch counters in downtown Nashville. University members, faculty and students from the Divinity School and across the University stood in solidarity with Lawson, some faculty and the dean of the Divinity School even resigning in opposition.
60 years later, the James Lawson Institute at Vanderbilt Divinity School exists to carry forward a living tradition of nonviolence shaped Lawson.
“The opportunity to visit these places and hear from those who take care of them deepened my admiration for the students who led the lunch counter protests in our city. I am grateful to those who keep Reverend Lawson’s Nashville alive and shared it with us so generously,” said Leah Lowe, director for the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy.
“I left inspired,” shared Stephanie Schacht, BA ’04. “More connected to my community, and more connected to the legacy of the land on which we live and the spirit that moved and still moves within and among us to align social conditions more fully with our inherent collective dignity and belonging.”
