Steve lawson age

American historian

"Steven Lawson" redirects here. For other uses, see Steve Lawson.

Steven Fred Lawson (born June 14, 1945) is an American historian of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. He is an emeritus professor at Rutgers University–New Brunswick.

Life and career

Born in the Bronx, New York, he is the son of Ceil Parker Lawson, a housewife, and Murray Lawson, a retail hardware clerk. He had a sister, Lona Lawson Mirchin, who died in 2004.

He earned his Ph.D. in history from Columbia University in 1974. After teaching at various colleges and universities for forty years, he is now retired, works as an independent scholar, and shares a home in New Jersey with his wife Nancy A. Hewitt and their miniature poodle, Scooter (named after 1950s New York Yankees star and broadcaster Phil Rizzuto).

List of works

Books

• (2012) Exploring American Histories. Bedford/St. Martin’s Press.(with Nancy A. Hewitt)
• (2009) One America in the Twenty-first Century: The Report of President Bill Clinton’s Initiative on Race. New Haven, Yale University Press
• (2004) To Secure These Rights: President Harry S Truman’s Committee on Civil Rights Boston: Bedford-St. Martin’s.
• (2003) Civil Rights Crossroads: Nation, Community, and the Black Freedom Struggle. University Press of Kentucky. 2003. ISBN .
• (2003) Co-authors Darlene Clark Hine; Merline Pitre. Black Victory: The Rise and Fall of the White Primary in Texas. University of Missouri Press.
• (1998) Co-author Charles Payne. Debating the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1968. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman- Littlefield.
• (1997) Running for Freedom: Civil Rights and Black Politics in America Since 1941 (Second ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
• (1985) In Pursuit of Power: Southern Blacks and Electoral Politics, 1965–1982. New York: Columbia Univ

February 14, 2023

Williamstown Theatre Festival and the town of Williamstown lost a one-of-a-kind friend last week. We at WTF are deeply saddened by the passing of beloved Festival actor, director, and playwright Steve Lawson. Steve died at age 73 of natural causes at his home in Williamstown on February 7, 2023.

Referring to the omnipresent sprite from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, WTF Trustee and former staff member Tom Fontana anointed Steve “The Ariel of Williamstown.” Tom, who produced St. Elsewhere, a television series for which Steve wrote seven episodes, said, “he was always floating around, perennially.”

Steve was born in Rye, NY and attended Williams College (class of ‘71) and then attended the Yale School of Drama to study criticism. In an interview with Berkshire Fine Arts, Steve once explained that “Nobody was hiring critics so, as a substitute, I turned to journalism and got to interview fascinating people like David Mamet, Athol Fugard, John Sayles, and Francois Truffaut. I published in The New York Times, Horizon, and Saturday Review.” Steve returned to Williamstown after his time in New Haven, purchasing a house with his brother and finding ways to continue to work with WTF.

Fontana said, “He was unrelenting in his passion for the theater.” And Austin Pendleton, a frequent collaborator of Steve’s at the Festival, added, “I will always admire Steve’s passion for theater.” “Over his 50 or more years, even when he wasn’t dramaturging, he kept evolving his involvement, making those epic adaptations for Free Theater and singing in the Cabaret. Will any of us ever forget Pink Fish?” asked Fontana.

Steve participated in 43 of WTF’s seasons, the most by anyone ever. He was proud of that record and his steadfast place as a member of the WTF “family.” Steve’s relationship with the Williamstown Theatre Festival spanned more than 50 years, beginning in 1969 when Steve, then a sophomore at Williams, wrote pr