James Farmer

1999 Honoree

In January 1998, when U.S. President Bill Clinton awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the nation’s highest civilian honor — to Mr. James Farmer, it was a moment of great pride for the entire nation. Mr. Farmer is the founder and former national director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and a long-time civil rights and social reform activist.

A native of Marshall, Texas, Mr. Farmer was one of the “Big Four” of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, which included Martin Luther King, Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Roy Wilkins of the NAACP, and Whitney Young of the National Urban League.

Mr. Farmer earned bachelor degrees from both Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, and the Howard University School of Religion in Washington, D.C.

From 1961 until 1966, he served as national director of CORE and emerged as one of the nation’s most prominent and influential civil rights leaders. After leaving CORE in 1966, he headed the Center for Community Action Education, a private agency established to develop and implement a national literacy program.

In 1969, Mr. Farmer was appointed by U.S. President Richard Nixon as assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. In 1972, he served as president of the Council on Minority Planning and Strategy. Four years later, he was named associate director of the Coalition of American Public Employees and, in 1977, was named its executive director, representing nearly four million public workers throughout the United States.

Mr. Farmer chronicled his life and the struggle for civil rights in his autobiography, Lay Bare the Heart. His work also chronicles his experiences as a teacher. In August 1998, Mr. Farmer retired from his position as professor of history and American studies at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he had served since 1985.

To today’s youth, the civil rights warrior speaks: “Freedom and equality are inherent rights in the United States, therefore, I encourage young people to take on the task by standing up and speaking out on behalf of people denied those rights. We have not finished the job of making our country whole.”