JAMES FARMER, Jr.

James Farmer was one of the most prominent civil rights activists and leaders in the American Civil Rights Movements. He initiated and organized the 1961 Freedom Ride, which helped to desegregate the inter-state transportation system in the United States. What Rosa Parks did for the desegregation of the intra-state system he did for the transportation system between all states.

In 1942 Farmer was the co-founder of the Committee of Racial Equality later to be the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Core was an organization that sought about bringing an end to racial segregation in the United States through nonviolent means. He was also an honorary vice chairman for Democratic Socialists of America. Farmer was considered one of the "big four" of the Civil Rights Movement.

Early incidents of segregation put him on a path to do what he had to do to change the racial injustices that he had witnessed as a child. When he was 14 he enrolled at Wiley College where he earned the spot as captain of the debate team. The movie “The Great Debaters” was based on his tenure at Wiley College. Denzel Washington who also starred in it also directed this movie.

In later years Farmer became disenchanted with growing militancy and Black Nationalist sentiments in CORE. He resigned his post as director in 1966. He took a teaching position at Pennsylvania’s Lincoln University. Lincoln is one of the oldest Black colleges in the country. In 1968 Farmer ran for U.S. Congress as a Liberal Party candidate and was backed by the Republican Party. He lost to Democrat Shirley Chisholm. Following his defeat he was appointed to the position of Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. After only one year in this position he once again became disenchanted and frustrated, this time it was the bureaucracies that he had to deal with in Washington that frustrated him.

After retiring from politics in 1971, he remained active by lecturing and serving on various boards and committees. In 1975 he co-founded “Fund for an Open Society.” Its vision was a nation where people live in integrated communities and where people of different races and ethnicities share power. He led this organization until shortly before his death in July of 1999 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The cause of his death was complications from diabetics. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton. He published his autobiography “Lay Bare the Heart” in 1985.

From 1984 through 1998, Farmer taught at Mary Washington College (now The University of Mary Washington) in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where a bust of him now stands on campus and the multicultural center is named after him. They also named a program after him that encouraged minority students to enroll and enter college. It is the James Farmer Scholars program.