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."[1] 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.

[1][2] 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.

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.

Farmer wanted a Coke immediately and enviously watched another young boy go inside and buy one.

His mother told him the other boy could buy the Coke at that store because he was white, but Farmer was a person of color and not allowed there.

While his father convinced the manager to give his uncle a room in the sleeping car on the train, Farmer realized that his dad was lying.

At Wiley, Farmer became anguished over segregation, recalling particular occasions of racism he had witnessed or suffered in his younger days.

Farmer started to think about how to stop racist practices in America while working at the Fellowship of Reconciliation, which he joined after college.

Then she found a note from a girl in one of Farmer's coat pockets, an event that catalyzed the end of their marriage.

She had been diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, so the two were told not to have children because at that time pregnancy was thought to exacerbate cancer.

James Farmer later recalled: I talked to A. J. Muste, executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), about an idea to combat racial inequality.

[16]In an interview with Robert Penn Warren in 1964 for the book Who Speaks for the Negro?, Farmer described the founding principles of CORE as follows: Jack Spratt was a local diner in Chicago that would not serve colored people.

[20] In 1961, Farmer, who was working for the NAACP, was reelected as the national director of CORE, as the civil rights movement was gaining power.

The group would be trained extensively on nonviolent tactics in Washington, D.C., and embark on May 4, 1961: half by each of the two major carriers, Greyhound Bus Company and Trailways.

For overnight stops they planned rallies and support from the black community, and scheduled talks at local churches or colleges.

The states knew about the trip and facilities either took down the "Colored" and "White Only" signs, or didn't enforce the segregation laws.

Before the group made it to Alabama, the most dangerous part of the Freedom Ride, Farmer had to return home because his father died.

In Alabama, the other riders were severely beaten and abused, narrowly escaping death when their bus was firebombed.

Their efforts sparked a summer of similar rides by other Civil Rights leaders and thousands of ordinary citizens.

In Jackson, Mississippi, Farmer and the other riders were immediately jailed, but law enforcement prevented violence.

[22] As the Freedom Rides were attacked by whites, news coverage became widespread, and included photographs, newspaper accounts, and motion pictures.

The following year, civil rights groups, supplemented by hundreds of college students from the North, worked with local activists in Mississippi on voter registration and education.

James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, all of whom Farmer had helped recruit for CORE, disappeared during the Mississippi Freedom Summer.

A full-scale FBI investigation aided by other law enforcement, found their murdered corpses buried in an earthen dam.

Years later, recalling the event, Farmer said, "Anyone who said he wasn't afraid during the civil rights movement was either a liar or without imagination.

[23] As the Director of CORE, Farmer was considered one of the "Big Six" of the Civil Rights Movement who helped organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.

)[24][25][26] Growing disenchanted with emerging militancy and black nationalist sentiments in CORE, Farmer resigned as director in 1966.

[13] Farmer took a teaching position at Lincoln University, a historically black college (HBCU) near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Academics and the participants unanimously agreed that the founders of CORE were James Farmer, George Houser and Bernice Fisher.