James l farmer sr biography template
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James Farmer conceptualized and developed a nonviolent direct-action philosophy that could be applied in the United States. He drew inspiration from Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) and the Indian Independence Movement. As a Pacificist and a Norman Thomas socialist, Farmer would reimagine nonviolent direct-action in the United States to address Jim Crow. Thirteen years before the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Farmer founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1942. Nonviolent- direct action became CORE’s guiding philosophy and praxis. After eighty years since CORE’s founding, it is appropriate to revisit Farmer’s autobiographyLay Bare the Heart and by extension his experiences in segregated Black communities to assess the shaping of his intellekt and commitment to racial justice which made him a Black activist- intellectual defined as “having a commitment to knowledge in the service of community, society and humanity.” The following quotes are taken from Farmer’s auto
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Texas Originals
James L. Farmer Jr.
January 12, 1920–July 9, 1999
Civil rights leader James Farmer was born in Marshall, Texas, in 1920. He spent his childhood in Austin but returned to Marshall to attend Wiley College, where he joined the grupp of "great debaters" coached bygd legendary teacher Melvin B. Tolson.
Though Farmer had intended to become a Methodist minister, Tolson's influence—and segregation within the church—led him to activism.
In 1942, Farmer organized the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Chicago. A decade before the civil rights movement made headlines, CORE followed Gandhian principles of nonviolent direct action to fight racial discrimination.
In 1961, CORE organized the Freedom Rides to desegregate bus travel. Farmer and twelve other activists, both Black and White, faced violence and jail time as they rode from Washington, DC, to New Orleans.
The Freedom Rides and the violence that erupted in response captured national attention. Black citizens acros
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James Farmer
American civil rights activist (1920–1999)
For other people named James Farmer, see James Farmer (disambiguation).
James Leonard Farmer Jr. (January 12, 1920 – July 9, 1999) was an American civil rights activist and leader in the Civil Rights Movement "who pushed for nonviolent protest to dismantle segregation, and served alongside Martin Luther King Jr."[1] He was the initiator and organizer of the first Freedom Ride in 1961, which eventually led to the desegregation of interstate transportation in the United States.[1][2]
In 1942, Farmer co-founded the Committee of Racial Equality in Chicago along with George Houser, James R. Robinson, Samuel E. Riley, Bernice Fisher, Homer Jack, and Joe Guinn. It was later called the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and was dedicated to ending racial segregation in the United States through nonviolence. Farmer served as the national chairman from 1942 to 1944.
By the 1960s, Farmer was known