James Farmer, Civil Rights Leader - Fredericksburg, Virginia - Civil Rights Memorials on Waymarking.com

"James Leonard Farmer Jr. (January 12, 1920 – July 9, 1999) was an American civil rights activist and leader in the Civil Rights Movement "who pushed for nonviolent protest to dismantle segregation, and served alongside Martin Luther King Jr." He was the initiator and organizer of the first Freedom Ride in 1961, which eventually led to the desegregation of interstate transportation in the United States.

In 1942, Farmer co-founded the Committee of Racial Equality in Chicago along with George Houser, James R. Robinson, Samuel E. Riley, Bernice Fisher, Homer Jack, and Joe Guinn. It was later called the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and was dedicated to ending racial segregation in the United States through nonviolence. Farmer served as the national chairman from 1942 to 1944.

By the 1960s, Farmer was known as "one of the Big Four civil rights leaders in the 1960s, together with King, NAACP chief Roy Wilkins and Urban League head Whitney Young."" - Wikipedia


Marker text:
James Farmer,
Civil Rights Leader
James Leonard Farmer was born in Texas on
12 Jan. 1920. In 1942, he and other Civil Rights
leaders founded the Congress of Racial Equality
(CORE) in Chicago. CORE used Gandhi-
inspired tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience
to protest discriminatory practices against
blacks. Under Farmer's leadership, in the spring
of 1961, CORE organized "Freedom Riders"
to desegregate interstate transportation in the
Deep South. He was an assistant secretary in
the U.S. Department of Health, Education and
Welfare (1969-1970). Farmer taught at Mary
Washington College (1985-1999) and received
the Presidental Medal of Freedom in 1998.
Farmer died on 9 July 1999. His house stands
east of here.

Civil Right Type: Race (includes U.S. Civil Rights movement)

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