EMILY YELLIN W/ REV. EARLE J. FISHER: NONVIOLENT

Join us as we welcome EMILY YELLIN in conversation with REV. EARLE J. FISHER on WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1 at 6:00 PM to celebrate the release of Rev. Lawson’s memoir (which Yellin collaborated in writing) NONVIOLENT: A MEMOIR OF RESISTANCE, AGITATION, AND LOVE.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Throughout his rich life, Rev. Lawson worked to dismantle racial, social, and economic injustice. Dr. King called Rev. Lawson, "the leading strategist and theorist of nonviolence in the world." This vital, first-person account portrays Rev. Lawson engaged in galvanizing and often harrowing campaigns of nonviolent direct action-a radical, disciplined, far-reaching method of redemptive revolution centered in love and moral clarity. Rev. Lawson's story spans his more than nine decades, as well as his abolitionist heritage. While in college, he served prison time for resisting the Korean War daft. Later, he traveled to India and Africa, where he immersed himself in Gandhi's philosophy and tactics and met with emerging African independence leaders. In 1957, Dr. King urged Lawson to "come South now," and a historic solidarity was born. Rev. Lawson was vital to desegregating downtown Nashville in the early 1960s. He trained the Little Rock Nine, the Mississippi Freedom Summer volunteers, and countless other civil rights foot soldiers. He co-led the 1963 Birmingham campaign, the 1966 Meredith March Against Fear, and the 1968 Memphis sanitation workers' strike. Throughout his life he stood up to two particularly pervasive forms of violence in the United States: police brutality and what he called plantation capitalism. After moving to Los Angeles in the 1970s, he continued the quest for economic and racial equity, and for women's and LGBTQ+ rights. Well into the twenty-first century, he helped foster a more inclusive labor movement and an enduring immigrant rights movement.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Rev. James Lawson Jr. was a pastor who was integral to the Civil Rights Movement and a key figure in ongoing campaigns for labor, gender, and immigrant rights. He introduced the tactical, philosophical, and spiritual facets of nonviolence to generations of activists, and inspired countless people worldwide to join in creating the beloved community.

Emily Yellin is a journalist, writer, and producer. A longtime contributor to The New York Times and author of two other books, she produced a ten-part video series, 1,300 Men: Memphis Strike '68, for The Root. She first met Rev. Lawson when she was five, while attending elementary school in Memphis with his eldest son, John.

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER:

Rev. Earle J. Fisher, Ph.D., is a scholar, pastor, organizer, and public intellectual committed to Black liberation, civic empowerment, and institutional transformation. He serves as Senior Pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee, where he has cultivated a vibrant model of Black faith, cultural expression, and prophetic social witness. Under his leadership, Abyssinian has become a nexus for community organizing, political education, and spiritual formation throughout South Memphis and Whitehaven. Dr. Fisher is the Founder of UPTheVote901, a nonpartisan, Black-led voter empowerment initiative designed to increase political power, information and representation across Memphis and Shelby County bridging the academy, church, and broader public square. Dr. Fisher serves as Associate Professor of Religious Communication and Africana Studies and the Inaugural Dean of Chapel at LeMoyne-Owen College, where he leads Chapel Soul Sessions and advances work at the intersection of Africana intellectual traditions, public theology, and liberative pedagogy. He also teaches at Rhodes College, Memphis Theological Seminary, Claflin University, and Brite Divinity School. The author of The Rev. Albert Cleage Jr. and the Black Prophetic Tradition, Dr. Fisher is a sought-after speaker and commentator whose work amplifies marginalized voices and challenges systems that undermine Black political, spiritual, and cultural agency.