Charles “Zafir” Lawson, Co-founder of Art for Justice, is an acclaimed visual artist whose thought provoking art has been featured in over 100 displays and exhibits since 1997. Charles Lawson has used his art to stimulate conversations in diverse communities about systemic racism, poverty, injustice and how they are manifested in mass incarceration and throughout society. Mr. Lawson’s brilliant art continues to bring people together to discuss the transformative change needed in our communities, the Criminal Justice System, and throughout our society.

Referring to the public outrage after seeing the video of the murder of George Floyd – coming after many other police killings of unarmed Black and Brown Individuals – Charles Lawson writes,

The conversations about systemic racism and injustice taking place in our streets and communities, throughout this country and the world will hopefully generate much needed change in the Criminal Justice System (CJS). These are the very conversations I have been expressively illustrating in my art. The layers and layers of injustice must be peeled open so people can see – as they see in the video of the murder of George Floyd – the racism and injustice that have been going on for so long.

Art for Justice stands upon beliefs that each person who connects with the CJS should encounter the same rights. This has not been the case throughout the history of this country – yet change must come! Accountability and equity should be applied conscientiously. I am proud to use these recurring themes in my art to promote the conversations Art for Justice was founded upon.

Road Map for Life Workshops

Charles Lawson is Co-creator, with A.M. Kirk, of the Road Map for Life Workshops. His art and statements engage young people who are in or at risk of entering the criminal justice system in discussions about critical issues they face in their day-to-day lives. The Workshops have been presented at the Montgomery County Youth Detention Center, in Norristown, PA during the summers of 2012 -2019. 

Growing up in Philadelphia I knew the poverty and violence that young people live with every day. Peer pressure was a constant reality and survival was dependent on how you were perceived.

One of my goals is to inspire youth to look at their own talents and turn away from violence which can lead to the halls of the criminal justice system and eventually to prison. If I can inspire just one or two persons, then I can count myself among those who have tried and succeeded.

Charles Zafir Lawson is fighting to clear his name as the 17-year-old convicted to first degree murder and sentenced to life without parole of a South Philadelphia man who was shot to death in 1974. After a four-year battle in the Pennsylvania courts, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania vacated Zafir’s mandatory life without parole sentence and granted him a new trial in 1978. Regrettably, Zafir took the advice of his legal counsel and pled guilty to voluntary manslaughter instead of going back to trial and was released from prison after serving 5 years. Thirteen years later, while in the throws of drug addiction, Zafir killed a man in self-defense in a South Philadelphia crackhouse. A judge did not agree with Zafir’s self-defense claims and found him guilty of murder of the third degree. Under Pennsylvania’s recidivism law, the judge imposed the mandatory sentence of life without parole. 

In the years to follow, the United States courts began addressing the cruelty of sentences handed down to juvenile offenders. Zafir responded accordingly and timely by filing various motions in the Philadelphia courts requesting post-conviction relief on the premise that he was a juvenile offender when he was accused of the 1974 murder and should receive the benefit of the United States Supreme Court’s holding in Miller v. Alabama and its progeny, Montgomery v. Louisiana. Please continue to visit our website for updates.