James L. Farmer, Jr.

Civil rights activist

• Born: January 12, 1920
• Birthplace: Marshall, Texas
• Died: July 9, 1999
• Place of death: Fredericksburg, Virginia

An early civil rights leader, Farmer began his career in the 1940’s as a program director for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Among his best known accomplishments are his founding of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and his leadership during the Freedom Rides of 1961.

Early Life

James Leonard Farmer, Jr., was born in Marshall, Texas, to James and Pearl Farmer. He was the second of three children. His father, the son of slaves, held a Ph.D. from Boston University and briefly was a Methodist minister; his mother was a schoolteacher. During Farmer’s childhood and adolescence, his father worked as a faculty member and administrator for a number of colleges. He spent his youth sheltered from the worst of the Jim Crow era by his father’s positions and community standing.

Despite Farmer’s privileged upbringing, however, he witnessed instances of discrimination during his formative years that shaped the man he later became. When he was almost four years old, he experienced the first sting of racism. He and his mother were shopping in town and he wanted to stop at a soda fountain; after putting him off with explanations that there was plenty of cold Coke at home, his mother finally explained that he could not go into the fountain for his soda because of his color. In March of 1930, when Farmer was ten, he went with his father to the train depot to buy a ticket for a relative to return home to New York. The relative needed a Pullman car with a bedroom, but reserving one for an African American traveling from the South was difficult. Farmer’s father believed that, with his standing in the community, he could persuade the station manager to make the reservation. To young Farmer, seeing his father have to humble himself before the white man was disheartening. He swore to himself that he would never be put into that position.

Farmer graduated from high school at the age of fourteen and from Wiley College at eighteen. After completing his bachelor of divinity degree at Howard University School of Religion in 1941, he took a job with New York-based Fellowship of Reconciliation, a pacifist organization run by A. J. Muste.

Life’s Work

The earliest civil rights leader to use direct, nonviolent means of protest, Farmer founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1942. Through this organization, he refined the practice of nonviolence in direct action when Martin Luther King, Jr., was still a teenager. CORE’s first act of civil disobedience was a 1942 sit-in at Jack Spratt Coffee House, a Chicago doughnut shop. Nearly two decades later, Farmer was a key organizer of the Freedom Rides that sought to desegregate transportation in the Deep South.

Farmer also had a lengthy career in labor organizing and for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). When drafted for service during World War II, he declared himself a conscientious objector. He was granted a deferment as a minister, although he had refused ordination after completion of his divinity studies at Howard University.

After being jailed in Plaquemine, Louisiana, for disturbing the peace, Farmer was unable to attend the March on Washington in August, 1963. His aide, Floyd McKissick, read the address he had written for that occasion.

In the years following the 1961 Freedom Rides, Farmer expanded his involvement to guide the federal government in improving conditions for African Americans. Working with President Lyndon B. Johnson, he helped to write the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1968, Farmer ran as the Liberal Party candidate for a congressional seat representing New York’s newly created twelfth district in Brooklyn. Shirley Chisholm, the Democratic candidate in this heavily Democratic district, beat him by a margin of more than two to one, becoming the first African American woman elected to congress.

President Richard M. Nixon invited Farmer to join his administration in one of three positions in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare: assistant secretary for administration, deputy commissioner of education in charge of civil rights, or personal consultant to the secretary. Farmer chose the position of assistant secretary for administration. He remained in this post until December 28, 1970.

After his term of political service, Farmer gave lectures around the country. In 1975, he assisted Morris Milgram in establishing the Fund for an Open Society, an organization that provided low-interest mortgages for people of all colors. The fund could only pay Farmer a small stipend, however, and Farmer needed a regular job with a stable income to support his ailing wife and their two daughters. He approached Jerry Wurf, the international president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees. Wurf helped him to secure a position as the associate director of the Coalition of American Public Employees (CAPE), where Farmer remained for six years.

By 1979, severe diabetes and congestive heart failure had begun to take a toll on Farmer’s health. Over the next few years, his sight failed and both his legs were amputated. Despite these challenges, he joined the faculty of Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he held the title of distinguished professor of history. He shared the story and lessons of the Civil Rights movement to packed classes until 1998. Farmer died on July 9, 1999, in Fredericksburg.

Significance

Farmer was one of the “Big Four” leaders of the Civil Rights era, along with Martin Luther King, Jr., of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Roy Wilkins of the NAACP, and Whitney Young of the National Urban League. His career in civil rights spanned more than three decades. In 1998, President Bill Clinton acknowledged Farmer’s contributions by presenting him with the Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given to civilians.

Bibliography

Arsenault, Raymond. Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Makes extensive use of both primary and secondary sources to provide a detailed look at the movement and the people involved.

Barnes, Catherine A. Journey from Jim Crow: The Desegregation of Southern Transit. New York: Columbia University Press, 1983. Early chapters in this book discuss the history of segregated transit in the South; chapter nine specifically addresses the Freedom Rides.

Danielson, Leilan. “The ’Two-ness’ of the Movement: James Farmer, Nonviolence, and Black Nationalism.” Peace and Change 29, nos. 3 and 4 (July, 2004): 431-452. Examines the evolution of Farmer’s racial and pacifist attitudes throughout his civil rights career.

Farmer, James L. Freedom—When? New York: Random House, 1965. Examining the movement from the inside, Farmer provides his perspective on the history and state of the Civil Rights movement.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Lay Bare the Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement. New York: Arbor House, 1985. Farmer provides a retrospective glimpse into the Civil Rights movement from the perspective of an insider and leader of the movement.