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Nashville to name school for civil rights icon James Lawson

FILE - In this Sept. 17, 2015, file photo, the Rev. James Lawson speaks in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Lawson, who led nonviolence workshops during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, said he's encouraged by efforts to maintain equality at the polls amid what he see as attempts to thwart it. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 17, 2015, file photo, the Rev. James Lawson speaks in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Lawson, who led nonviolence workshops during the civil rights struggles of the 1960s, said he's encouraged by efforts to maintain equality at the polls amid what he see as attempts to thwart it. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

By Associated Press 1 min read

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Nashville will name its newest high school after civil rights leader the Rev. James Lawson.

The Metro Nashville Public Schools board voted last week to name the Bellevue area school after Lawson. The school will replace the current Hillwood High School. It’s slated to open in August 2023.

Lawson, a Black Methodist minister, led nonviolence workshops for student leaders as a Vanderbilt University divinity student.

Those sessions culminated in the 1960 sit-in protests that led to the successful integration of Nashville’s lunch counters.

This July, Vanderbilt announced the launch of the James Lawson Institute for the Research and Study of Nonviolent Movements.