James Lawson
Rev. James Lawson, a leader of the civil rights movement who trained many activists during his time in Nashville, died in June at the age of 95 after cardiac arrest.
Lawson, a native of Ohio, worked as an Indian Methodist missionary, studied non-violent resistance techniques defended by Indian lawyer and anti-colonial activist Mahatma Gandhi. On his return to Japan in 1956, he began studying theology at Oberlin College, where he was introduced to Martin Luther King Jr.
King urged Lawson to move south, and by 1958 Lawson was a student at Vanderbilt University Seminary, but served as Southern Director of the Racial Equality Conference (Core) and nonviolence for Tennessee State University students. A technical workshop was held. University and Vanderbilt. Among the students he coached was John Lewis. John Lewis chaired the Student Nonviolence Coordination Committee and later served in Congress. Diane Nash, Bernard Lafayette and Marion Barry.
Lawson was banished from Vanderbilt for protests at the request of James Stahlman, a publisher of Nashville Banner, who was sitting on the university’s board of trustees.
Lawson helped develop the Freedom Ride strategy, a 1961 campaign to separate interstate bus trips, and served as Minister of the Centenary Methodist Church in 1968 during the sanitary workers’ strike. At Lawson’s request, King came to Memphis where he gave his famous “mountain summit” speech, and was later assassinated.
He moved to Los Angeles, and in his subsequent life Lawson continued to serve as a civil rights pastor and leader, becoming active in the labor movement.
Vanderbilt supports being housed in Arts Sciences and Seminary Schools for James Lawson Institute research and research in 2022, and for non-violent movement research and research at Vanderbilt University. I did.
Dick Lodge
Former Tennessee Democrat Chairman Richard “Dick” Lodge was working to create a Super Tuesday presidential primary.
The Lodge served as Democratic chair from 1983 to 1988, during which he led committees in the Southern states. This is an organization that proposed to hold all Southern state primary elections on the same day to increase power in selecting Democratic candidates for the president.
“When your dog bites you four or five times, it’s time to have a new dog. According to historian Barbara Nolander, the main concept lodge on Super Tuesday said: .
Born in Sewanee, Tennessee, the lodge graduated from Suwanee: Southern University and Vanderbilt University Law School. He was involved in the late Jim Sasser’s successful US Senate campaign in 1976 and served as his first legislative leader in Washington, DC.
After returning to Tennessee in 1978, the lodge led government affairs practices at the Nashville Law Office Berry & Sims, and was appointed by then-Mayor of Nashville Phil Bredesen as the first chair of the Metro Nashville Department of Sports. I did. He serves as president of Middle Tennessee Legal Services, a nonprofit law firm that advocates the legal rights of low-income and vulnerable Tennessees, providing housing and vocational training to women recovering from sex trafficking. Worked with thistle farm, a Nashville-based organization, addiction or prostitution
Winfield Dunn
Former government official Winfield Dunn, who became the first Republican-elected governor in 1970 in over 50 years, passed away on September 28th at the age of 97.
Bryant Winfield Calverson Dunn was a Mississippi native who graduated from the University of Tennessee Dental School in Memphis.
According to biography On the Tennessee Secretary’s website, Dan’s political views were influenced by Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater’s book, “Conservatives of Conscience.”
However, with the encouragement of Republican Sen. Bill Bullock, when he ran for governor in 1970, he defeated Democrat John Jay Hooker and took office. Provides continuous conditions.
During his tenure, Dan established the Bureau of Economic Community Development and the Bureau of General Services. He supported ratification of the 26th Amendment, lowered the voting age to 21-18, and established statewide kindergartens in public schools.
In 1986 he ran again for the governor and lost to House Democrat Speaker Ned McWorter.
Oscar Brock, a member of the Republican National Committee and son of the late Bill Brock, said Dan “has always been a perfect gentleman and always has kind words for you and your family.”
Jim Sasser
Jim Sasser, the three-term representative from Tennessee to the US Senate and former Democrat chair, died September 10th in 1987.
Sassar was the last Democrat to hold a US Senate seat in Tennessee during a time when Democrats ruled national politics. The defeat in hindsight in 1994 marked the beginning of the end of party rule in the volunteer states.
A graduate of Vanderbilt Law School, Sasser worked most of his early experts as political activists and later as Democratic operatives.
Former Republican Sen. Bill Bullock defeated Gore in the 1970 Senate reelection campaign. Six years later, Sasser ran towards the Senate himself, defeating Brock and earned two more terms.
Sasser steadily ran through the ranks of the US Senate, becoming the chairman of a powerful budget committee in 1990, and was re-election in 1994, and would become the majority leader of the US Senate if Democrats remained in the majority. It gave me the opportunity to become.
Associated Press According to an article from May 1994, Sassar said he was “known for his attention,” focusing on “returning the project to Tennessee during his first year in Washington.”
“I’ve always seen government as a friend of ordinary people and viewed politics as an interesting, provocative way of bringing positive change,” the Associated Press said, calling Sasser “cornie.” I’m quoting it.
Rep. Jim Cooper, a Nashville Democrat who ran for the Senate in 1994, said that Sasser was always close to Tennessee’s working class roots and was a fair and humble man who never acted like a big name. He said he continued.
After Sasser’s defeat, Clinton appointed him as China’s ambassador. While he served in Beijing, protests erupted when the US accidentally bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo War, and Sassar tried to ease tensions, making it a garnering attention from media around the country. I led him to.
After his time in China, Sasser and his wife lived in Washington, DC, and moved to North Carolina to approach his family later in life. However, he remained connected with Tennessee and in 2013 he donated a Congressional paper to Vanderbilt.
Bill Freeman
William H. “Bill” Freeman, Titan, a philanthropist, former mayoral candidate and a leading Democrat fundraiser from the Nashville business community, passed away on November 17th.
A native of Nashville, Freeman attended the University of Tennessee before being evicted to begin a career in real estate. After becoming friends with Jimmy Webb through his involvement with the Nashville Junior Chamber of Commerce, the two launched the Freeman Webb Company, a real estate investment, management and brokerage company in 1979. .
Freeman is the most important democratic fundraiser in Tennessee and the Southeast, raising funds for Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, as well as countless local and federal candidates for Democrats. Obama was appointed to the Kennedy Center Arts Advisory Committee in 2016 by President Barack Obama, and he was an early supporter of Biden, who appointed Freeman to the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Committee. Freeman also served as a member of the White House Historical Society and in 2009 he served as Treasurer for the Tennessee Democratic Party.
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