Previously contemplating a career in medicine, Farmer then thought he would follow in his dad's footsteps and take up ministerial work, earning his divinity degree from Howard University in 1941. While there he learned about the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. Farmer studied much of Gandhi's philosophies and applied his ideas of nonviolent civil resistance to the US civil rights movement.
In 1942, Farmer and a multi-racial group of colleagues decided that they would desegregate a Chicago eatery via a sit-in. They thus formed the Committee of Racial Equality, with the name later becoming the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Its mission is "to bring about equality for all people regardless of race, creed, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion, or ethnic background." With Farmer elected national chairman, CORE developed a mostly white North-based membership with various chapters, yet would eventually find itself becoming deeply involved in the South.
In 1960, the Chicago chapter of CORE began to challenge racial segregation in the Chicago Public Schools. Between 1960 and 1963, CORE wrote letters about the conditions of schools to the Board of Education, mayor, the Illinois State House of Representatives, and the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. In addition, CORE attended the Board's school budget hearings, speaking against segregation and asking for the Board to implement transfer plans to desegregate the schools. In July 1963, CORE staged a week-long sit-in and protest at the Board office in downtown Chicago in response to the Board's inaction. Finally, Board President Claire Roddewig and Willis agreed to meet with CORE to negotiate integration.
During the 1960s, CORE turned towards community involvement, seeking to equip Chicagoans with ways to challenge segregation. Freedom Houses, transfer petitions, community rallies and meetings served to educate Chicagoans about segregation. By 1966, the Chicago Freedom Movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and Chicago's Coordinating Council of Community Organizations (CCCO), had assumed control over civil rights demonstrations and negotiations. When the Chicago Freedom Movement met with representatives of the City to negotiate in the summer of 1966, they agreed on ten fair housing reforms but did not discuss reforms to desegregate the schools.
Farmer worked on launching the Freedom Rides with the intention of challenging segregation on bus travel. The Freedom Riders consisted of both women and men, black and white who traveled on bus routes through Southern states. The first ride was launched on May 4, 1961. 13 riders, seven black and six white, left Washington, DC on buses (One Greyhound and one Trailways bus). Their plan was to ride through Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, ending in New Orleans, Louisiana, where a civil rights rally was planned. The Freedom Riders' tactics for their journey were to have at least one interracial pair sitting in adjoining seats, and at least one black rider sitting up front, where seats under segregation had been reserved for white customers in the South. The rest of the team would sit scattered throughout the rest of the bus. One rider would abide by the South's segregation rules in order to avoid arrest and to contact CORE to arrange bail for those who were arrested.
The Birmingham, Alabama, Police Commissioner and the police sergeant, an avid Ku Klux Klan supporter, organized violence against the Freedom Riders with local Klan chapters. They made plans to bring the Ride to an end in Alabama. They assured the Eastview Klavern #13 (the most violent Klan group in Alabama), that they would have fifteen minutes to attack the Freedom Riders without any arrests being made. The plan was to allow an initial assault in Anniston with a final assault taking place in Birmingham.
On May 14, in Anniston, the Klansmen attacked the first of the two buses (the Greyhound). The driver tried to leave the station, but was blocked until KKK members slashed its tires. The mob forced the crippled bus to stop several miles outside of town and then firebombed it. As the bus burned, the mob held the doors shut, intending to burn the riders to death. Exploding fuel tank caused the mob to retreat and the riders escaped the bus but the mob beat the riders after they got out. Only warning shots fired into the air by highway patrolmen prevented the riders from being lynched. That night, the hospitalized Freedom Riders, most of whom had been refused care, were removed from the hospital at 2 AM because the staff feared the mob outside the hospital. Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth organized several cars of black citizens to rescue the injured Freedom Riders. They were openly armed as they arrived at the hospital, protecting the Freedom Riders from the mob.
When the Trailways bus reached Anniston and pulled in at the terminal an hour after the Greyhound bus was burned, it was boarded by eight Klansmen. They beat the Freedom Riders and left them semi-conscious in the back of the bus. When the bus arrived in Birmingham, it was attacked by a mob of KKK members, aided and abetted by police under the orders of the commissioner. As the riders exited the bus, they were beaten by the mob with baseball bats, iron pipes, and bicycle chains. White Freedom Riders were singled out for especially furious beatings.
In June 1963, as part of the “Big Six”, Farmer help organize the March on Washington. But he wasn’t able to make the march because he had been arrested during a protest in Louisiana. Farmer had stated that the protests will not stop "until the dogs stop biting us in the South and the rats stop biting us in the North." Floyd McKissick, his eventual successor as the leader of CORE, read his speech for him.
James Farmer, Jr. died on July 9, 1999 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. He had been suffering greatly from diabetes during his later years. But a year before his death, Farmer received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton.
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