Long-time civil rights leader Rev. James Lawson Jr. proved he hasn’t lost his ability to inspire young activists at a September non-violence training seminar conducted at Angelica Lutheran Church in the Pico Union neighborhood of Los Angeles.

The training session was set up by LAANE and UNITE HERE to prepare individuals to be arrested in a massive civil disobedience march and rally planned for Sept. 28 in front of the LAX Radisson Hotel.

The purpose of the demonstration is to call attention to the plight of the mostly immigrant workers who are fighting for better working conditions at the 13 airport hotels. The hotels along Century Boulevard employ about 3,500 workers and pay some of the lowest industry wages in the county.

Lawson, along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., helped orchestrate the nonviolent campaign that led to the crumbling of the racist Jim Crow era. Now the former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference has become a champion for immigrant workers who are fighting for their rights on the job.

“There is, in the sight of God, no illegal human being and no baby birthed who is undocumented,” says Lawson, who is one of the founders of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE).

Lawson said nonviolence is still an effective tool to get things accomplished. “There is no power like the power of people,” Lawson told a high spirited crowd of 250 college students and working class activists. “Nonviolence is the gift of God to every single human being, but we never take the time to learn about it.”

Tawnia Quick, a 20-year-old student at Azuza Pacific University, said she and some of her friends, who attended the two-hour seminar, were eager to participate in the protest.

“Growing up, we were always taught that violence is redemptive,” said Quick, who is hoping to get arrested on September 28th. “But to hear this speaker is amazing. I cannot believe that people are still being treated unequally. I don’t think that we should stand by and not do anything about it.”

Before she heard Lawson speak, Maria Buenrostro, a 32-year-old Los Angeles Convention Center worker, said there was no way she would have imagined herself getting arrested for any kind of cause. That changed after Buenrostro heard Lawson tell the audience to stand up for something.

“It was inspiring,” said Buenrostro. “Before hearing him, I didn’t want to stand up...I was scared to be arrested. After hearing him, though, I decided to get arrested and go to jail--thanks to the words he spoke.”