Gandhi-King Community Member Mary King Wins James Lawson Award for Nonviolent Activism

"[On Friday, June 22nd] the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict presented its first James Lawson Award for Nonviolent Achievement—or, rather, awards. The ceremony took place over lunch in a multi-purpose room at Tufts University, midway through ICNC’s annual, week-long Fletcher Summer Institute for the Advanced Study of Nonviolent Conflict. All four Lawson Award winners are taking part in FSI this year, and all four are women: Mary King, Ghada Shahbender, Lhadon Tethong, and Nada Alwadi."

One of the winners, Mary King, is a member of the Gandhi-King Community and a prominent scholar on King, Gandhi, and nonviolent movements from the Indian independence movement to the nonviolent movement in Palestine today.

"Mary King, who worked with Lawson and SNCC in the civil rights movement, was honored not just for her activism but for her 'great intellect and scholarship,' as Jack DuVall put it. King is a political scientist who specializes in civil resistance, and on Tuesday she spoke about the First Intifada in Palestine as a nonviolent movement. (She has also contributed to Waging Nonviolence.) 'You have no idea how special this is!' she said, embracing her onetime teacher. '50 years—half a century!'"

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Photo above pictures, from left to right: Lhadon Tethong, Nada Alwadi, Jack DuVall, James Lawson, Ghada Shahbender, Mary King. Photo by Arzu Geybullayeva.