Farmer, James (1920–1999)

Farmer is best known for conceiving and organizing the 1961 Freedom Ride that called attention to the inequities of segregation in the South. He cofounded the organization that later became CORE. At the age of 21, Farmer was invited to meet President Roosevelt and was later considered to be one of the Big Four leaders of the civil rights movement. In 1966, he left the movement, disillusioned with its acceptance of race separation and black nationalism as a strategy. Ultimately, he served in the Nixon administration. In 1998, Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. See also Congress of Racial Equality.