James l farmer jr autobiography of benjamin

James Leonard Farmer, Jr. was born on January 12, 1920 in Marshall, Texas. Education was held in high regard in Farmer’s family. In 1918, his father James L. Farmer, Sr. earned a P.h.D from Boston University, becoming one of only twenty-five African Americans who held Ph.D.’s at the time. After completing high school at the age of fourteen, Farmer enrolled in Wiley College where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1938. Farmer was a Methodist pacifist and deeply influenced by Gandhi’s principles of nonviolent protest. In 1942, he and a group of college students founded the Committee of Racial Equality in Chicago, Illinois. The organization was later renamed as the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Farmer served as the national director of the organization from 1961 until 1966. CORE was a leading civil rights organization during the Civil Rights Movement. The interracial organization was known for its use of nonviolent, direct action tactics in confronting