Born: January 12, 1920, Marshall, TX

Education: Wiley College, B.A., 1938; Howard University School of Religion, B.D., 1941

Died: July 9, 1999, Fredericksburg, VA

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which Farmer cofounded in 1942, advocated pacifism, nonviolent protest, and racial integration. He helped organize its freedom ride, a bus Journey of Reconciliation (1947), to test southern states’ compliance with the Supreme Court decision barring segregation on interstate buses. It was the forerunner of Freedom Rides (1961), which energized demonstrations to desegregate public accommodations, education, employment, housing, and voting. As CORE national director (1961–66), he created Freedom Highways and Open Cities projects and spoke at the March on Washington.

CORE's ideological crisis disheartened him. When many activists, notably Mississippi Freedom Summer volunteers, espoused black control of leadership, expelling whites, rejecting nonviolence and integration, and demanding Black Power, he resigned. Afterward consulting and teaching, he ran for a New York congressional seat. He also joined the Department of Health Education and Welfare (HEW), where segregationists blocked his efforts to integrate staff, expand Head Start, and recruit minorities into HEW's fellowship program. He left to be a policy consultant and visiting professor at Mary Washington College. His Lay Bare the Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement (1985) defends the movement's quest for an integrated society.