Robert C. Lawson

After attending Howe Institute (New Iberia) in Louisiana, Lawson traveled throughout the United States, becoming a cabaret singer and gambling and hustling when he had the chance.

Go preach my word’.”[4] A short time later, the frail young man was healed and followed his divine orders by heading the Apostolic Faith Assembly in Indianapolis and becoming baptized.

That year Lawson founded the Refuge Church of Christ in 1919, after the members of a prayer band in Harlem welcomed him and turned their meetings over to him.

The Refuge Temple in Harlem was the hub of Lawson's evangelistic efforts in the Northeast, which ultimately grew into the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ, or COOLJC.

Lawson founded a chain of funeral homes, a seminary, a radio station, a magazine, and several businesses, among other endeavors.

By the time Lawson died on June 30, 1961, the membership at his headquarters Greater Refuge Temple had grown to over 3,000 members.

In 1927, Bishop Lawson founded the Barger Street Colony, variously known as the Emmanual Inn, Lawsonville, or Larksburg, on 121 acres (0.49 km2) in Putnam Valley, New York.

By the early 1930s, busloads of people, mostly from Lawson's Harlem church, perhaps several hundred for a summer weekend, would make the trip from the city to Putnam Valley.