Early life:Mr.Farmer was born in Marshall, Texas, to James L. Farmer, Sr. and Pearl Houston. His father was a professor at Wiley College, a historically black college, and a Methodist minister with a Ph.D. in theology at Boston University. His mother, a homemaker, was a graduate of Florida's Bethune-Cookman Institute and a former teacher.Farmer was a child prodigy; at the age of 14, he enrolled at Wiley College, where he was the captain of the debate team. While there, a professor of English, Melvin B. Tolson, became his mentor.Farmer earned a Bachelor of Science at Wiley College in 1938, and a Bachelor of Divinity from Howard University School of Religion in 1941.Farmer married Winnie Christie in 1945.Winnie found herself with child not long after they were married. Then she found a note from a girl in one of Farmer's coat pockets. The note was the beginning of the end of their marriage. When Winnie miscarried, they divorced not soon afterwards. Lula, who Farmer married a few years later, wrote the note. Lula was diagnosed with Hodgkins disease, and the two were told not to have children. When Lula was still alive many years later, they looked for a second opinion. They were then given the green light to try to have children. After an unfortunate miscarriage, they finally had a little girl, Tami Lynn Farmer, born on February 14, 1959.A second daughter, Abbey Farmer, was born in 1962.
Career:Co-founder and National Director of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), James "Jim" Farmer was the architect of the original CORE Freedom Ride of 1961. He saw the significance of desegregating interstate travel and the potential of repeating CORE's 1947 Journey of Reconciliation as a movement tactic. He endorsed a new name, "Freedom Ride," to win media attention and better communicate the mission and goals of the trip.Farmer retired from politics in 1971 but remained active, lecturing and serving on various boards and committees. He was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto II in 1973.In 1975 he co-founded OPEN Society.Its vision is a nation in which people live in stably integrated communities, where political and civic power is shared by people of different races and ethnicities. He led this organization until 1999.He published his autobiography Lay Bare the Heart in 1985. In 1984, Farmer began teaching at Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Death:Farmer retired from his teaching position in 1998 and died on July 9, 1999 of complications from diabetes in Fredericksburg, VA.