Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- James Leonard Farmer, Jr., 1920-1999 Robert L. Tinsley, 1933-2020
- Abstract:
- Extent:
- 1 record box and 1 oversize box (1.5 linear feet)
- Language:
- Preferred citation:
-
James Farmer Historical Collection. Graduate Theological Union
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The materials were collected by Robert L. Tinsley. They include correspondence related to publishing Farmer’s autobiography and his later life and to Tinsley’s life and interests. Folders 23-42 in Box 1 were extracted from a large binder collected by Tinsley featuring Farmers life after 1984, including events that recognized his contributions for civil rights.
- Biographical / historical:
-
James L. Farmer Jr (1920-1999), outlived the other members of the Big Four Civil Rights leaders: Martin Luther King (Southern Christian Leadership Conference), Roy Wilkins (NAACP executive director), and Whitney Young (National Urban League). He also is one of the Big Six, which included Representative John Lewis and Dorothy Height (National Council of Negro Women), forming the Council of United Civil Rights Leadership. He was born in Marshall, Texas, in 1920, and grew up in a separate black and white world. His father was a minister who had received a doctorate in religion from Boston University and later became a professor of theology at several black seminaries. Farmer graduated from Wiley College and Howard University School of Religion, where he learned about Gandhi’s non-violent approach to civil protests from Howard Thurman. He worked for Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), a Quaker organization, after graduation. Fighting desegregation from an early age, he was a founder of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Chicago in 1942. There, he and others successfully conducted a sit-in against a diner. After years as a union organizer, he returned to become CORE’s national director in 1961, where he organized the Freedom Riders in the South. This intense period of protest led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1968, he ran against Shirley Chisolm for Congress and lost. She became the first Black woman representative. After a series of public service positions, including assistant secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, he became a professor at Mary Washington College, where he taught civil rights history. His autobiography, Lay Bare the Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement, published in 1986, was well received. He received numerous awards in recognition of his contributions to civil rights including the Presidential Award in 1998. After years of ill health, he died in 1999. In 2010, a documentary about his life was released: The Good Fight: James Farmer Remembers the Civil Rights Movement. Robert L. Tinsley (1933-2020), a retired lieutenant colonel from the Air Force and executive assistant for Farmer for 25 years, collected this material. He ran a creative agency, obtained the publishing contract for Farmer’s autobiography and arranged speakers for special events. These materials include correspondence related to publishers and to his own life and interests. Folders 23-42 in Box 1 were extracted from a large binder collected by Tinsley documenting Farmer’s life after his autobiography was published. Additional information: The James Farmer Lectures, jamesfarmerlectures.umwblogs.org; James L. Farmer Collection, https://umw.access.preservica.com/index.php?name=SO_37d8ee73-80f5-4546-b835-81fe17863fd2; and James Leonard Farmer, Jr., and Lula Peterson Farmer Papers, 1908, 1921-1999, https://txarchives.org/utcah/finding_aids/00004.xml.
- Acquisition information:
- Received July 27, 2023, from Joseph Evans, a professor at the Berkeley Divinity School, who received it from Robert L. Tinsley, who had been a member of his congregation.
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Available for research.
- Terms of access:
-
Copyright has not been assigned to The Graduate Theological Union. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Graduate Theological Union as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
- Preferred citation:
-
James Farmer Historical Collection. Graduate Theological Union
- Location of this collection:
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2400 Ridge RoadBerkeley, CA 94709, US
- Contact:
- (510) 649-2523/2501