The last time I heard the Rev. James Lawson Jr. speak was in 2011. He was the main attraction at a Beverly Hills event for a progressive organization that counted Lawson among its guiding lights. It was the year of Occupy, and the lines of separation in the country were entirely about class, the haves and have-nots. Inequality was being discussed in most quarters as capitalism that had officially run amok, and everyone wanted to hear what one of the country’s greatest living activists had to say about the moment.
Sitting in a chair across from a moderator, Lawson praised Occupy, lauding the thousands across the nation who were staging sit-ins and pitching encampments to challenge the staggering wealth gap that had produced the 1%. The room cheered.
