James Farmer

As the founder of the Congress of Racial Equality, James Farmer was an important part of the civil rights movement. Before CORE, he was a program director for the NAACP. He worked with Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Whitney Young, and Roy Wilkins. He led organizations on peaceful protests, following Mohandas Gandhi’s ideas of nonviolent protests, for equality between the races. In the 1960’s, he led groups of people to stand outside of public places of which they were banished. He risked his life at times, because of his passion to fight for change. In 1961, he was part of the group of bus-riders protesting segregated seating on buses. He called his this greatest achievement. He continued to write, and published ”Freedom — When?”, as well as his memoir, ‘Lay Bare the Heart.”