James l farmer sr biography of william

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." 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.

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 as "one of the Big Four civil rights leaders in the 1960s, together with King, NAACP chief Roy Wilkins and Urban League head Whitney Young."

Biography

Early life

James L. Farmer Jr. was born in Marshall, Texas, to James L. Farmer Sr. and Pearl Houston, who were both educators. His father was a professor at Wiley College, a historically black college, and a Methodist minister with a Ph.D. in theology from Boston University. His mother, a homemaker, was a graduate of Florida's Bethune-Cookman Institute and a former teacher.

When Farmer was a young boy, about three or four, he wanted a Coca-Cola when he was out in town with his mother. His mother had adamantly told him no, that he had to wait until they got home. Farmer wanted a Coke immediately and enviously watched another young boy go inside and buy one. His mother told him the other boy could buy the Coke at that store because he was white, but Farmer was a person of color an

James Leonard Farmer, Jr., one of the major leaders in the Civil Rights Movement, said that his experiences as a young college student in segregated Marshall led him to "participate in a movement that would try to bring about change."

Born in Marshall in 1920, Jim was the second child of Pearl Marion Houston and James Leonard Farmer, Sr., an educator and Methodist minister teaching at Wiley College. Shortly after Jim's birth, the family moved from Marshall when his father accepted a teaching position out of state but they returned after Farmer, Sr., became a professor of religion and philosophy at Wiley in 1933.

The family lived on Barney Street across from the Wiley campus where Jim enrolled at age 14. A gifted student, he was influenced by Melvin B. Tolson, an English professor, poet and director of Wiley's highly successful debate team, which Jim joined. Tolson, considered a radical by some, introduced him to the concept of civil disobedience through Thoreau's writings. Farmer and other students often discussed their desire to end segregation that kept them out of Marshall's restaurants and restricted them to the balcony of the Paramount movie theater accessed through a side entrance.

After graduating from Wiley in 1938, Farmer moved to Washington, D.C., where his father joined the faculty at Howard University and Farmer earned a divinity degree. Drawing on his religious studies, he joined the staff of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an interfaith pacifist organization. Farmer embraced the nonviolent philosophy and incorporated it into the mission of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which he co-founded in 1942.

CORE organized the first successful restaurant sit-in in Chicago in 1943 and the Journey of Reconciliation in 1947 with both white and African Americans challenging segregation on interstate bus travel in the South. That action became the model for CORE's Freedom Rides in 1961 in which dozens of riders

James Leonard Farmer, Jr. was born on January 12, 1920 in Marshall, Texas. Education was held in high regard in Farmer’s family. In 1918, his father James L. Farmer, Sr. earned a P.h.D from Boston University, becoming one of only twenty-five African Americans who held Ph.D.’s at the time. After completing high school at the age of fourteen, Farmer enrolled in Wiley College where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1938. Farmer was a Methodist pacifist and deeply influenced by Gandhi’s principles of nonviolent protest. In 1942, he and a group of college students founded the Committee of Racial Equality in Chicago, Illinois. The organization was later renamed as the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Farmer served as the national director of the organization from 1961 until 1966. CORE was a leading civil rights organization during the Civil Rights Movement. The interracial organization was known for its use of nonviolent, direct action tactics in confronting racial inequalities. In the early 1960s, CORE also became recognized for its “Freedom Rides” throughout the South.

In October 1963, Farmer came to Milwaukee to address two civil rights meetings and attend a Milwaukee United School Integration Committee (MUSIC) and Milwaukee chapter of CORE (MCORE)– sponsored school desegregation rally. While in Milwaukee, Farmer commented that the pattern of housing segregation in Milwaukee was one of the worst he had ever seen in the country. He also stated that “the actual exclusion of Negroes from other areas makes Milwaukee one of the most segregated cities in the country.”

In 1969, Farmer accepted the post of Assistant Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare from President Richard Nixon. In 1985, his memoir, Lay Bare the Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement, was published. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, he taught history at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia. In 1998, President