1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Reverend James Lawson, Jr. Congressional Gold Medal Act . 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Reverend James Morris Lawson, Jr. ( Rev. Lawson ) was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on September 22, 1928, to Reverend James Morris Lawson, Sr. and Philane May Cover. (2) Rev. Lawson received his local preacher’s license in 1947, the same year he graduated from high school. (3) While attending Baldwin-Wallace College, Rev. Lawson joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the oldest pacifist organization in the United States and an advocate of nonviolent resistance to racism, as well as the Congress of Racial Equality, where he was exposed to the nonviolent teachings of world-renowned civil rights and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi ( Gandhi ). (4) From 1953 to 1956, Rev. Lawson served as a Methodist missionary at Hislop College in Nagpur, India, where he continued his studies of satyagraha, Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolent resistance, and met with associates and fellow students of Gandhi. (5) Rev. Lawson was instrumental in bringing the message of Gandhi to the United States. (6) Rev. Lawson viewed segregation in the United States as much like the untouchables of India and was inspired by the view of Gandhi that it could be through African Americans that the unadulterated message of nonviolence will be delivered to the world. . (7) In 1956, Rev. Lawson enrolled in the Oberlin School of Theology in Ohio, where he first met Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ( Dr. King ), who urged Rev. Lawson to move to the South to spread his teachings on nonviolence, saying Don’t wait! Come now! You’re badly needed. We don’t have anyone like you! . (8) In 1957, Rev. Lawson answered the call of Dr. King, moving to Nashville, Tennessee, and enrolling at Vanderbilt Divinity School as the second African-American student in its history. (9) Rev. Lawson opened a Fellowship of Reconciliation field office, became the southern secretary for the organization, and held seminars to train