James Farmer

From Philosopedia

Farmer, James (12 January 1920 - 9 July 1999)

Born in Marshall, Texas, the son of a preacher, Farmer attended Howard University's School of Divinity. In 1942 he founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a civil rights organization and the first in the United States to use nonviolent tactics to protest racial discrimination. He personally led the first organized civil rights sit-in in U. S. history at an all-white Chicago restaurant

In 1961 under his leadership, CORE organized "Freedom Rides" throughout the South, using white restaurants, white restrooms, and white waiting areas rather than using "colored" facilities. Sometimes attacked by mobs, the Freedom Rides were instrumental in the government's pushing through and enforcing anti-segregation legislation.

Farmer signed Humanist Manifest II and was on the editorial board of The Humanist. In 1966, he wrote Freedom When? and, in 1985, Lay Bare the Heart.

In 1976, the American Humanist Association named him a Humanist Pioneer - Farmer was a nominal Methodist.

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