Scope and Content Note This collection consists of Dean J. Robert Nelson’s materials relating to the events at Vanderbilt University that were known as “the Lawson affair.” In 1960, a graduate student in the Divinity School was dismissed from the University, despite the Dean’s objections, for his participation in local lunch-counter sit-ins. In protest Nelson resigned as Dean of the Divinity School. Most of this collection is comprised of correspondence ranging from before Nelson’s appointment as Dean in 1957...

Abstract

This collection contains a single 6 page manuscript titled "Forty-Eight Hours at Vanderbilt" written by Charles Roos in 1985. The essay documents Roos's involvement in the 1960 James Lawson case at Vanderbilt. The '48 hours' document June 7-8, 1960.