James Farmer (1920-1999)

James Farmer, one of the founders of Congress of Racial Equality, at a meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1964.

Farmer was born in 1920 in Marshall, Texas. At a young age Farmer was exposed to intellectual conversations, and a multitude of books, since his father was a college professor. In 1938, he attended Howard University's School of Religion. There he learned about the philosophy of Mohandas Ghandi. Farmer followed Ghandi's strategy of non-violence to obtain civil rights. In the 1940s, Farmer became a programer of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People. The following decade he founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) with George Houser, James R. Robinson, Samuel E. Riley, Bernice Fisher, Homer Jack, and Joe Guinn. Most famously, Farmer and his CORE members created and organized the Freedom Rides of 1961.

For more on James Farmer go to:

http://www.core-online.org/History/james_farmer_bio.htm

https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/education/students/leaders-in-the-strug...

Public Domain

Link

Trikosko, Marion S. [James at a meeting of American Society of Newspaper Editors, bust portrait, seated at a table before a microphone]/ [MST]. 1964. Film negatives. Library of Congress: Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2003688125/ (Accessed December 5, 2018)