Born in Fairfield, Alabama near “Bombing Hill,” Jennifer Lawson was the daughter of a repair shop owner and school teacher. She first became involved with the Movement around 1961 at the time of the Freedom Rides. In 1964, Lawson began attending Tuskegee University where she participated in campaigns and marches including including the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery March. As the fight for voting rights raged in Selma, Lawson and other Tuskegee students and picketed at the capitol, despite the ever-present threat of Alabama State Troopers and the Ku Klux Klan.

As executive vice president of national programming for the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) until 1996, Jennifer Lawson is, according to Jeremy Gerard in the New York Times, "the most powerful programming executive in public television." Lawson is responsible for overseeing the creation, promotion, and scheduling of national programming for the 330-station public television system. Prior to PBS, Lawson was a senior programming executive at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and also had several years' experience working as a funding liaison with filmmakers.