Honoring Rev. Phillip Lawson: A Life of Love, Justice, and Liberation
October 26, 1932 – January 26, 2025
The Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) honors the extraordinary life and legacy of our beloved co-founder, Rev. Phil Lawson, who passed away earlier this year at the age of 92.
Rev. Phil Lawson’s impact as a civil rights leader, faith-rooted organizer, and tireless advocate for justice reverberates throughout California’s Bay Area and far beyond.
His ministry, rooted in radical love and unwavering solidarity, spanned decades and movements: from civil rights to housing justice, immigrant rights to interfaith organizing.
A Towering Legacy in Movement Spaces
Born into a family of Methodist ministers, Rev. Lawson grew into a life shaped by moral courage and community commitment. In 1965, he marched alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. from Selma to Montgomery. He was subpoenaed by Congress for his relationships with the Black Panther Party and his travels to North Vietnam — actions rooted in global solidarity and his bold challenge to U.S. empire.
In a 2013 interview with Street Spirit, Lawson described systemic oppression:
“Poverty is built into the financial and economic system. Gender bias and racial bias are built into the way the nation operates… It’s not personal and private — it’s public and political.”
He made it clear: justice would not come through reform alone.
“We need to stop playing the games… thinking we can tinker with the system. It has to be dismantled, and we have to build a new system.”
From the Pulpit to the Pavement
Rev. Lawson served as pastor of Easter Hill United Methodist Church in Richmond, California starting in 1992. There, he rooted his activism in faith, saying:
“The core of my theology is care for the poor, care for the neighbor… for the stranger, the hungry, the powerless.”
He worked with the East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO), Greater Richmond Interfaith Program (GRIP), and interfaith coalitions around Occupy Wall Street and HIV/AIDS support. He sat on county task forces supporting needle exchanges, pushing public health into spaces too often ignored. In every room, he carried his belief in justice as a spiritual mandate.
Co-Founding BAJI: Bridging Black Struggles Across Borders
In 2006, Rev. Lawson co-founded the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), calling on his deep well of experience to link the struggles of African Americans and Black immigrants. He understood anti-Blackness as a global phenomenon, and solidarity as a spiritual obligation.
As Rev. Kelvin Sauls, fellow co-founder and close friend, said in tribute:
“He was sold-out to combating fear and hatred, injustice and discrimination centered in #LOVEolution… He was lamp and light from pulpits to pews to pavements, sanctuaries to suites to streets.”
At BAJI, Rev. Lawson reminded us that justice work is both practical and prophetic. He held space for political education, policy advocacy, and the radical act of being in community.
A Spirit That Moves With Us Still
Rev. Lawson was recognized as Contra Costa County’s Humanitarian of the Year in 2003, and celebrated by institutions like Pacific School of Religion (PSR) in Berkeley, which remembered him as a “beloved friend” and fearless advocate.
At his funeral, Rev. Sauls offered these words of blessing and challenge:
“May your power fuel us with renewed resolve to resist the reformation and resurgence of religious nationalism, manipulated by heresy, funded by oligarchy, en route to autocracy! Moreover, power us relentlessly for the reimagination of God’s Beloved World House.”
We carry Rev. Lawson’s memory not just in grief, but in purpose.
He taught us that justice is a practice. That love must be militant. That nonviolence is not simply a tactic, it’s a way of life. And that community is the only way forward.
Aṣẹ to the spirit of Rev. Phillip Lawson.