Rev. James Lawson was the leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence in the U.S. Civil Rights movement, and continues today as an advocate for the power of collective nonviolent struggle in furtherance of campaigns for peace, justice, freedom, equality, and human rights. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called James Lawson "The leading nonviolence theorist in the world."

Reverend Lawson moved to Los Angeles in 1974 to lead Holman United Methodist Church. He has continued to train activists in nonviolence and to work in support of a number of causes, including workers' rights to a living wage. He is an advocate for a moral economy and challenges Wal-Mart, as the largest private employer in the United States, to provide a living wage to its 1.6 million employees.