Lawson was widely known throughout the Hesters Store Community for his manly humanity, his work ethic, his endurance, his capacity to make do with dignity, his straight-ahead honesty, sense of good and bad, and the way he raised his children. He lived his entire life under the threats of Jim Crow, but Shorty knew he was the equal of any man, proud that he was more principled and could outdo any White man. “When we pulled tobacco, he worked two rows, I worked one, and he always met me coming back, helping me with my row.” He knew more about farming, was the most powerful swimmer, and his inventions and equipment repairs were legendary, but he never owned land.
“Millions of white Americans, for the first time, had a clear, long look at Negroes engaged in a serious occupation… The stereotype of the Negro suffered a heavy blow.” (Martin Luther King, Jr.)