Congress of Racial Equality

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), civil-rights organization founded (1942) in Chicago by James Farmer. Dedicated to the use of nonviolent direct action, CORE initially sought to promote better race relations and end racial discrimination in the United States. It first focused on activities directed toward the desegregation of public accommodations in Chicago, later expanding its program of nonviolent sit-ins to the South. CORE gained national recognition by sponsoring (1961) the Freedom Rides, a series of confrontational bus rides throughout the South by interracial groups of CORE members and supporters that ultimately succeeding in ending segregation on interstate bus routes. CORE was one of the sponsors of the 1963 civil-rights march on Washington. After 1966, when Farmer resigned, the organization concentrated more on black voter registration in the South and on community problems. Later leaders have focused on African-American political and economic empowerment and have tended to agree with civil-rights critics such as Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush . CORE leader Roy Innis supported the nominations of Robert Bork (1987) and Clarence Thomas (1991) to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1996-98, Innis led teams that monitored elections in Nigeria. By 1999, CORE had about 100,000 members in 5 regional groups, 39 state groups, and 116 local groups.

Bibliography: See study by A. Meier and E. Rudwick (1973).

Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) US civil rights organization, founded in 1942 by James Farmer. It employed sit-ins, picketing, and boycotting tactics to combat discrimination in employment.

Congress of Racial Equality. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), one of the most important national organizations of the post‐World War II African American freedom movements, was founded by an interracial group of pacifists in 1942. Committed to nonviolent direct action and interracial activism, CORE first launched protests against racial segregation in public accommodations in the North. In 1947, CORE activists undertook the Journey of Reconciliation, riding buses into the South to test a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision outlawing segregation in interstate travel facilities. Although mob violence stopped the trip in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the project served as a model for CORE's 1961 Freedom Rides.

Initially a mostly white organization in the Northeast and Midwest, CORE expanded into the South after the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955–1956. The charismatic leadership of James Farmer, appointed national director in 1961, and increased media attention surrounding the Freedom Rides enabled CORE to launch a wide range of campaigns in the South during the 1960s. The experience of CORE organizers, the influence of southern blacks, and the impact of black nationalists like Robert F. Williams and Malcolm X, led to a growing radicalization. In 1966, under the leadership of Floyd McKissick, CORE endorsed the “Black Power” slogan and the following year deleted the term “multi‐racial” from its constitution, forcing whites from the organization. In 1968, new national director Roy Innis promoted black separatism and “black capitalism.” Although CORE had lost most of its national influence and vitality by the end of the 1960s, it had for nearly three decades played an influential role in the struggle to topple America's formal racial caste system and to create a new black sense of self.
See also Black Nationalism; Civil Rights; Civil Rights Movement; Pacifism; Racism.

Bibliography

Inge Powell Bell , CORE and the Strategy of Nonviolence, 1968.
August Meier and and Elliot Rudwick , CORE: A Study in the Civil Rights Movement, 1975.
James Farmer , Lay Bare the Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement, 1985.
William L. Van Deburg , New Day in Babylon: The Black Power Movement and American Culture, 1965–1975, 1992.

Simon Wendt