New Radio Series Spotlights East Austin Civil Rights Pioneer

EAST AUSTIN, TX -- A new radio series dubbed “Texas Originals” on those who’ve made profound impacts on state history and culture this week features James Leonard Farmer, Jr., a civil rights pioneer from East Austin.

Farmer was an activist and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement, pushing for nonviolent protest against segregation alongside Martin Luther King, Jr. His father, James Farmer, Sr., was a prominent theologian who taught at Samuel Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson University) in East Austin.

It was in the vibrant East Austin neighborhoods where Farmer experienced his formative years. A historical marker is installed on his childhood home on New York Avenue, a place Farmer described with fondness in his 1985 autobiography Lay Bare the Heart.

Born in 1920, Farmer departed East Austin to attend Wiley College in the city of Marshall where he was born. There, he joined the team of “great debaters” coached by the legendary teacher Melvin Tolson.

By 1942, Farmer would organize the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Chicago, a full decade before the civil right movement commanded the headlines. In that role, he helped desegregate bus travel by organizing the Freedom Rides in 1961--an accomplishment he’d later describe as his “proudest achievement.”

Farmer retired from CORE in 1966 and turned to government service and teaching. The year before his death in 1998, Farmer received the Presidential Medal of Freedom--the nation’s highest civilian honor.

The Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin houses the collected papers of Farmer and his wife Lula. The archives detail Farmer’s activities in CORE from the 1940s to the 1960s and his career in government.

News 88.7, in partnership with Humanities Texas, recently launched the new weekly radio segment profiling prominent Texas leaders. Hear the broadcast and read more about Farmer here. Learn more about Texas Originals here.