AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond released the following statement on the Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., the labor and civil rights leader, who has died:
Today, the AFL-CIO celebrates the monumental life of the Rev. James M. Lawson Jr., a labor visionary and key strategist behind the Freedom Rides whose commitment to nonviolent activism shaped the Civil Rights Movement. A disciple of nonviolence, Rev. Lawson served as a beating moral heart of America’s struggle for racial and socioeconomic justice. The reverend’s leadership of Black sanitation workers in 1960s Tennessee and his subsequent decades of activism bent the moral arc of the universe as few others have done.
The AFL-CIO sends our condolences to his family and community, and all who are feeling the reverend’s loss at this difficult time.
Contact: Riley Lopez, 202-637-5018