Sign-In
Cart
James Lawson: Teacher of Satyagraha
Hardcover
Biographies General20th Century United States History
ISBN13: 9789363365940
Publisher: Speaking Tiger Books
Published: Feb 18 2026
Pages: 298
Weight: 1.09
Height: 0.81 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
James Lawson (1928-2024) was a key figure in the American Civil Rights
Movement who trained a generation of civil rights activists in the Gandhian
philosophy and practice of nonviolent resistance. Yet his name rarely makes it
into popular retellings of the movement, especially outside the United States.
Drawing on conversations late in Lawson's life, historian Rajmohan Gandhi
follows this son of a Methodist pastor from a small Ohio town, Massillon,
through college debates, prison time as a conscientious objector during the
Korean War, and into the circles of Martin Luther King Jr and Bayard Rustin.
The pages move back and forth between family memories, local archives and
Lawson's own words. A key episode in the story is Lawson's three-year stay
in Nagpur in the 1950s, where, steeped in Gandhi's ideas and friendships
with Indian and African students, he refined the methods of nonviolent
direct action he would later teach in Nashville. His workshops there helped
shape the famous sit-in campaigns against racial segregation-campaigns that
spread across and helped transform the American South.
This is a compelling, affectionate portrait of an extraordinary champion of
love and justice, whose life and work have urgent lessons for our world today.
It is a story of courage without theatrics, and faith without platitudes, told by
the Mahatma's grandson-a scholar and thinker who came to it from across
an ocean.
Also from
Gandhi, Rajmohan
Prince of Gujarat: The Extraordinary Story of Prince Gopaldas Desai (1887-1951)
Gandhi, Rajmohan
Hardcover
Also in
Biographies General
Bluesland: Portraits of Thirteen Major American Blues Masters
Pete Welding (ED.)
Toby Byron (ED.)
Hardcover
Karl Popper - The Formative Years, 1902 1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna
Hacohen, Malachi Haim
Hardcover
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man
Trump, Mary L.
Hardcover
The Children of Athena: Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome: 150 Bc0-400 AD
Freeman, Charles
Hardcover
Make It a Double: From Wretched to Wondrous: Tales of One Woman's Lifelong Discovery of Whisky
Sackier, Shelley
Hardcover
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Isaacson, Walter
Hardcover
Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s
Howe, Sean
Hardcover
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World
Cooper, Christian
Hardcover
Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: The Rise of Womens Political Culture, 1830-1900
Sklar, Kathryn Kish
Paperback
The Secret Life of the Savoy: Glamour and Intrigue at the World's Most Famous Hotel
Williams, Olivia
Paperback
The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
Wittman, Robert K.
Kinney, David
Paperback
The Badger: The Life of Bernard Hinault and the Legacy of French Cycling
Fotheringham, William
Paperback
Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Paperback
The Butcher, the Embezzler, and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry
Cherington, Gretchen
Paperback
My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love
Dessa Wander
Hardcover
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Hardcover
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny
Hardcover
Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground
Dohrn, Zayd Ayers
Hardcover
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paperback
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
Colloff, Pamela
Hardcover