The Nashville workshops were started by Rev. James Lawson, who moved south at the request of Martin Luther King. At Nashville, Lawson organized and trained a group of students on nonviolent protesting through a series of classes, seminars, and simulations. These students were chosen mainly because unlike adults, they had more time and freedom to commit to the protests.
The initial goal of the students was to desegregate local diners and restaurants, and to do this they held practices were students would act as the racists, while others would practice withstanding the punishment passively and without retaliation. Lawson taught the students to merely absorb the blows, and to respond in a "creatively loving fashion".
Initially, the many students who participated and sat in at the diners weren't served. Instead of disturbing customers, they merely sat there and did their homework. On the third weekend of these sit-ins, the police showed up and over 80 students were either assaulted by other shoppers or arrested.
For the next two months, black students would continue their orderly protests. Day after day, they would go back to white businesses, where they would be gassed, assaulted, and have food poured on them. during this time period, Black citizens began boycotting segregated shops, and the tension reached a boiling point when a leading civil rights activist's house was bombed.
After the attack, the many protesting students demanded then Mayor Ben West to desegregate the city, which he eventually agreed to. Although the Nashville college students had won a great victory against segregation, they did not stop there. The continued protesting in front of movie theaters, and eventually many joined the now famous freedom riders to protest across America.
The Nashville workshops showed citizens all across America the merits of peaceful protesting and encouraged similar protests all over the country.
https://snccdigital.org/events/jim-lawson-conducts-nonviolent-workshops-in-nashville/
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2017/03/02/complete-coverage-civil-rights-movement-nashville/98648442/
http://www.crmvet.org/nars/lawsonj.htm#jl_nsm
Alan, good job giving a brief overview of the Nashville Workshops. I liked that you presented both the history and the outcomes of these workshops since it helped me understand their importance as well as the effect they caused. It is amazing that so many black students were able to protest in a nonviolent way, since this was the only way to efficiently protest. Violent protest would only validate the point of people who opposed them.
ReplyDeleteThis was an informative and interesting overview of the Nashville Workshops. Building off of your discussion, I think it is interesting to examine Lawson's sources of inspiration for nonviolent protest. One source was his mom, who was a faithful Christian who believed that violence didn't do any good. Another source was the Methodist Youth Fellowship, where he learned how to "do the work of the ministry," traveled as a missionary, and studied the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. I think it is interesting that Lawson's Christianity played such a big role in shaping this powerful nonviolence movement.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.umc.org/how-we-serve/transcript-james-lawson-reflections-on-life-nonviolence-civil-rights-mlk