The James Farmer Professorship in Human Rights honors the life and work of James Farmer, founder of the Congress on Racial Equality and a member of the history faculty at Mary Washington College for thirteen years prior to his death in 1999. Farmer was a towering figure in the Civil Rights Movement and is remembered not only for founding CORE but leading the Freedom Rides into the Deep South in the 1960s. He was the last surviving member of the "Big Four" group of Civil Rights leaders which included Martin Luther King Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Roy Wilkins, chief of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and Urban League leader Whitney Young. In recognition of his contribution to the struggle for human rights, the movement to which Farmer devoted his life, President Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.
Appointments to the James Farmer Professorship are made by the President and the Board of Visitors of the College on recommendation from an advisory committee.
James Farmer Professor
Dr. Gregory H. Stanton currently holds the James Farmer Professorship in Human Rights. To read more>>