VA-E113 James Farmer, Civil Rights Leader

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.

Department of Historic Resources, 2000