Jesse Lawson

Jesse Lawson (May 18, 1856 – November 8, 1927) was an American lawyer, educator, and activist. He served as an officer of the Afro-American Council, where he promoted racial justice and anti-Jim Crow legislation to the public and before Congress. He was the founder of the National Sociological Society and co-founded Frelinghuysen University with his wife, educator and activist Rosetta Lawson. Lawson received a Master of Arts from Howard University School of Law and served as a legal examiner for the Bureau of Pensions for 44 years. A Republican, he served as legal counsel for John Mercer Langston before the United States House of Representatives, successfully challenging the results of the 1888 elections in Virginia. He was also the editor of The Colored American and authored several works on political topics.

Family and education Jesse Lawson was born in Nanjemoy, Maryland, on May 18, 1856, to Jesse and Charlotte Lawson. Lawson went on to attend Howard University School of Law, earning a Bachelor of Laws in 1884 and a Master of Arts the following year. Lawson married educator and activist Rosetta Lawson in Washington, D.C., in 1884, and remained so until his death in 1927.

Lawson's academic career began in the Lyceum of the Second Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., where he lectured in sociology. He became president and professor of sociology and ethics at the Bible College and Institute for Civic and Social Betterment in 1906. The university was focused on working Black adults, allowing them to further their education when unable to meet the requirements of traditional schooling. The university charged minimal tuition, and classes were often taught out of homes in the area; the first classes were taught in Lawson's home. Lawson remained president of the university for 21 years. In this capacity, he worked with Daniel Alexander Payne Murray in defining a strategy of drawing attention to the social, political, and economic issues African Americans faced, intending to get Congress to consider the effects of disenfranchisement on African Americans. In 1902, the House Committee on Labor drafted a bill to create the Freedmen's Inquiry Commission, tasked with comprehensively investigating the condition of African Americans in the United States and finding the "best means of promoting harmony between the races". The bill was sponsored by Republican congressman Harvey S. Irwin, with Lawson and Murray testifying before Congress in support of it, though it ultimately never passed into law. He served as the vice president of the National Emancipation Commemorative Society. Created in 1909, the society organized celebrations in honor of the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation. He was also an active supporter of the temperance movement, giving public talks on the importance of enfranchisement, education, and the moral and social development of the African American community.

National Sociological Society In the early 1900s, Lawson founded the National Sociological Society, serving as its vice president. The society was established with the goal of considering "the race problem" and gathering information on race relations to present to the public and Congress. Michael R. Hill wrote in Diverse Histories of American Sociology that he and his wife "dedicated their lives to race betterment".