Yesterday 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.
FSI has gathered speakers and participants from across the globe, from Burma, to Madagascar, to Sweden, to Azerbaijan. They’re activists, scholars, journalists, resisters, jailbirds, exiles, and a clown. In a room where heroism is pretty much the norm, the mood can sway quickly from hope to frustration, from celebration to mourning. In a moment of laughter, you might even be tempted to think that heroism is easy, until you hear another story that makes you remember how painfully, unspeakably hard it is, and the toll it takes.
Over the course of the week they’ve told stories about beatings, imprisonment, interrogations, victories, absurdities, and homesickness. There have sometimes been a few tears—but they’re not an ordinary sort of tears. Coming as they do after long days of discussion about the strategies and tactics of resistance, they’re laced with very practical, hard-earned hope. There is faith in these rooms, but with reason.
Jack DuVall, president of ICNC, introduced the winners, and Rev. James Lawson himself handed them their plaques and certificates. Lawson was one of the great strategists of the civil rights movement, best known for his role in the Nashville lunch counter sit-ins. 50 years ago to the day, he was taking part in the Freedom Rides. By then he had already been a conscientious objector during the Korean War and traveled to India to study Gandhian nonviolence.
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!”
When Ghada Shahbender first began work as an activist in Egypt six years ago, her kids didn’t support her. She lost her job as an English teacher as a result of her activism. “My children were totally against it,” she said. “They had grown up in a culture of fear.” She went through repeated disappointments and frustrations as the regime’s oppression only grew worse. But Shahbender says that “it was worth every minute of every day” when Mubarak finally fell earlier this year. She wouldn’t have guessed it could happen even two months earlier. Her children were there with her in Tahrir.
As a leading organizer in the movement to free Tibet from Chinese rule, Lhadon Tethong is currently director of the Tibet Action Institute, fighting to liberate a land she has never seen. She has been detained for protesting in China and helps to teach new nonviolent tactics to Tibetan dissidents. “I know we can win,” she said in her brief remarks, speaking through tears. “I know we can learn from Rev. Lawson and the struggles of civil rights in this country.”
Finally came Nada Alwadi, a Bahraini journalist who was recently detained and interrogated in her country for contradicting the regime’s misrepresentations of the movement that has risen up against it. All week at FSI, she has been correcting fallacies that appear in the international press about Bahrain. “I was just doing my job,” said Alwadi, also through tears. “I have chosen to report what I have seen.” ICNC is working to help keep her safe in the US.
Lawson took the podium after almost all was said and done, tearing up as well. The strategist noted that he is also a theologian. “If God is,” he said, “then God’s intention is that the human race will tap the infinite potential of being in the likeness and image of life.” There’s no mistaking what form that takes in his mind. He echoed Tethong: “Yes, we will win.”
A proud Tibetan says “CONGRATULATIONS” to a wonderful,wonderful fellow Tibetan young woman on this absolutely wonderful occasion.Lhadon la,likes of you in our small world of Tibetans are the weapons China can not match.Very proud of you!Bring peace and tranquility to the world. U r the woman!
Lhadon la Congrats ! we are behind you. Keep it up !
Congratultations! We are proud of you! Keep going!
Congratulations to Mary King!! It has been such an honour to have you as my professor. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and incredible experience.
Congartulations Nada, keep up the high spirit!!
Lhadon la, Tashi Delek and congratulations. We Tibetans and non-Tibetans are very happy and proud of you for your dedications to the just cause of Tibet.
Bodh Rangzen!!!!! Free Tibet !!!!
Tashi delek and Congratulation to Lhadon la,
Please do keep up your hard work, and we are very proud of You.
Sincerely a supporter
Dear Nada, this is Inredible!!!!
Two years ago I made the same achievement. I attended the FSI seminar and over since I remained in contact with the fellows.
I congratulate you for this achievement and welcome to the ICNC’s network!! I really hope that the Institute will be able to provide you with all the protection and service you need to stay in the States until things get safer in your country.
Lhadon la, Congrats for this wonderful award. This is a symbolic and recognition of your dedication and struggle to free our conutry and its people from brutal Chinese regime through non-violence means. So, I would say keep going and continue to lead in the same spirit until we see the light of freedom from Chinese occupation. bod Gyalo and Free Tibet.
Congratulations to these four amazing and inspiring women! Your contribution to this world is extraordinary. Thank you for everything you do.
Congratulations Mary King for this honour well deserved. To have chosen you for this award is a demonstration of the recognition of your persistence and resoluteness regarding the ideal of nonviolence. As a believer in the power of nonviolent struggles Mary has preached nonviolent ideals to thousands of people from around the world, particularly the effectiveness of nonviolent change in the struggle for social change, even as she continues to devote all her energy to what she knows best how to do- the spreading of ideas that help to promote equality and fairness in the world where individuals are treated fairly and issues of race, gender, social class, etc become unimportant in the treatment of people. Wish you more of this.
Congratulations Nada
Miss you ,,, please keep it up
congratulations to all four ladies.
Special thanks and respect to Lhadon la for all the work you are doing for Tibet and for the strength you have given me.
See you in a free Tibet!
Dear Lhadonla, we are so proud of you! you’ve done so much for the tibetan movement and you are such an inspiring role model to every young tibetan! BHÖ GYALO! we love you, keep going!
Good to hear about Pastor Lawson’s award I grew up around this man and he is truly a great man.