James Farmer Jr. (1920 - 1999)

Mon Jan 12, 1920

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James Farmer Jr., born on this day in 1920, was a civil rights activist who organized the first Freedom Rides, co-founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and fought for desegregation alongside MLK Jr.

In 1942, Farmer co-founded the Committee of Racial Equality (which later became CORE) in Chicago along with George Houser, James R. Robinson, and others The organization was dedicated to ending racial segregation in the United States through nonviolence.

In a 1964 interview for the book “Who Speaks for the Negro?”, Farmer described the founding principles of CORE as involving the people themselves rather than “experts”, rejecting segregation, and opposing it via nonviolent direct action.

In 1961, Farmer, then working for the NAACP and serving as the national director of CORE, organized the first set of Freedom Rides, direct action protests against segregated bus systems throughout the South.