James Farmer was a leader in the fight to desegregate public transportation in the I 960s, Born in Texas in 1920. Farmer was an outstanding student and received degrees from Wiley College and Howard University Along with several Christian pacifists, he founded the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) in 1942, with the purpose of directing challenges to American racism by using Gandhi’s tactics of nonviolence. In 1947 Farmer participated in CORE’s Chicago restaurant sit-ins, which helped end restaurant discrimination against blacks. An articulate and charismatic man, Farmer became the national director of CORE in 1961, organizing Freedom Rides in the Deep South, He was appointed Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare by President Nixon. After leaving that position in 1971, Farmer worked at the Council on Minority Planning and Strategy, an African American think-tank. Farmer was awarded the Congressional Medal for Freedom in 1998 and died of complications from severe diabetes in July of 1999.