Congress of Racial Equality

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)was birthed in Chicago in 1942.  CORE originally started off as an integrated group of students. The purpose of CORE was to conduct nonviolent protest to encourage integration. The founders of CORE included James Farmer, Bernice Fisher, Homer Jack and George Houser.

CORE was inspired by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and his peaceful ideology. CORE is considered one of the big four groups that impacted the civil rights movement. CORE’s activism began in a coffee shop in Chicago, when the students decided to do a sit in because negros weren’t being served. The goal was to desegregate public spaces. As they begin to make progress in the north, they started focus their attention on the south.  When the Supreme Court decided segregated seating on interstate busses was unconstitutionally (1946), they started the “Freedom Rides.”

These “Freedom Rides” were a group of black and white people that rode busses from the north to the south. Often these rides had violent outcomes. Although the riders were never violent. There was one ride in particular, which was so violent that CORE ended the Freedom Ride movement. On a trip to Anniston, Alabama, the bus was bombed. Following the Freedom Ride movement, CORE focused on voter registration and cosponsored the March on Washington.

In the summer of 1964 CORE held the Freedom Summer voter registration drive in Mississippi. Three men were murdered by the KKK. James Chaney (Black), Michael Schwerner (Jewish), and Andrew Goodman (Jewish). The KKK members that committed the crime were set free with a few doing no more than six years for committing civil rights crimes. These movements contributed to the Civil Rights Act 1964 and the Voting Rights Act 1965. After Martin Luther King Jr.’s death in 1968 the direction of CORE changed under the direction of Roy Innis. Instead of being a nonviolent organization, it became a black nationalist group.

Thank you, to the members of C.O.R.E for your sacrifices and contributions to the culture!