Dr. James Farmer
1920 Born Jan. 12 in Marshall, Texas
1934 Enrolled in Wiley College, where he excelled on the debate team
1938 Graduated with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry
1941 Graduated from Howard University School of Divinity with a Bachelor of Divinity
1942 At age 22, co-founded the Congress of Racial Equality, also known as CORE
1942 With CORE, organized the nation’s first civil rights sit-in in Chicago, followed by many others in the 1940s and ’50s
1960s Established as one of the Big Four of the civil rights movement along with Martin
Luther King Jr., Whitney Young, and Roy Wilkins
1961 Organized and led the Freedom Rides to test federal law desegregating interstate bus travel
1963 Watched the March on Washington on a small TV from his jail cell in Plaquemine, Louisiana; though Farmer was a march organizer scheduled to speak in D.C., he and 200 others were arrested while peacefully protesting police brutality in Louisiana
1964 Freedom Summer: Farmer traveled to Mississippi after three civil rights workers – two of whom were CORE members – were murdered by a lynch mob; outrage about the violence contributed to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965
1969-1970 Served as assistant secretary for administration in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; strengthened Head Start and a program to train and educate low-level employees in the department
1975-1981 Served as associate director of the Coalition of American Public Employees
1977 Wife Lula A. Peterson Farmer dies
Early 1980s Moved to Spotsylvania County, Virginia, with the goal of finishing his autobiography
1985 Published Lay Bare the Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement
1985-1998 Taught at Mary Washington, retiring as distinguished professor of history
1997 Received Mary Washington College honorary doctorate of humane letters
1998 Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for extraordinary contributions to civil rights and social justice by President Bill Clinton; the James Farmer Multicultural Center renamed in his honor
July 9, 1999 Died in Fredericksburg, Virginia, survived by two daughters and a granddaughter