James+Farmer+and+the+Congress+of+Racial+Equality+(CORE)


 * NAME** - Dorothy Williams[[image:Me.JPG width="219" height="246" align="right"]]
 * AGE** - 17
 * HOMETOWN** - Alturus, California
 * HIGH SCHOOL** - Modoc County High School
 * BIRTHDAY** - June 1st, 1928
 * ZODIAC SIGN** - Gemini
 * RELATIONSHIP STATUS** - Boyfriend's location unknown
 * INCOME** - My father makes around $30,000 a year as a doctor in the army
 * OCCUPATION** - I am a student, but my father is a doctor, and my mother is now a nurse in the U.S.
 * FAMILY** - I have a mother, a father, an older brother, and a younger sister.

James Farmer founded the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, in 1942 (Danzer 593). At the time, he was a student in Chicago-Bernice Fisher ("CORE" 1). Several other students, James R. Robinson, Joe Guinn, George Houser, and Homer Jack, helped him to found this organization ("CORE" 1). Henry David Thoreau’s teachings and Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent civil disobedience campaign that he had used to defy Britain while ruling India had influenced these young Americans (“Congress” 1). This interracial group decided to try to apply these beliefs to gain civil rights for African Americans (“Congress” 1). Initially, CORE was created to integrate the urban North (Danzer 593). Africans had started moving to the South to find more jobs during the war, but discrimination followed them wherever they went (Danzer 593). This organization was first directed by white student George Houser and black student ("CORE" 1), and together they decided to start the CORE campaign with a sit-in at a segregated restaurant in Chicago (Danzer 593). Later that year in 1942, CORE began to spread nationally, but most of the supporters were white middle class college students in the Midwest ("CORE" 1). My older brother’s childhood friend, Bill, is a member of CORE right now, three years after it began, and our family supports it as well. Unfortunately, we cannot volunteer that much to help their cause because my father and brother are off in the war, and my mother and I have to take care of the house and my little sister. It may be just as well though, because Bill has told us about the riot that erupted in Detroit in June of 1943 (Danzer 593). Apparently, it started out as a little skirmish between a few African Americans and a few white people, but the fight escalated into a small battle when white sailors joined in (Danzer 593). Egged on by false rumors of white people murdering a black woman and baby and African Americans had killed 17 white people, tons of citizens joined the fray and the fighting lasted for three days. In the end, 9 whites and 25 blacks had been killed by the riot (Danzer 593). This year, 1945, I’ve heard that there are around 400 committees that try to improve relationships between the races (Danzer 593). My family hopes that CORE will prevail and bring America together. The last thing we need in this time of war is a war between the races in our own country.


 * __Works Cited__**

"Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)." __Spartacus Educational.__ SchoolNet. 25 Oct. 2007 <[|http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAcore.htm>.]

"CORE." __The History Of CORE.__ 2006. SchoolNet. 25 Oct. 2007 .

Danzer, Gerald A., Jorge J. Klor de Alva, and Larry S. Krieger. __The Americans__. Evanston, Il: McDougal Littel, 2003.

__**Picture Citations**__

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