A FOUNDING IDEA
THE STRATEGY
THE “IN’S”
THE CONGRESS OF RACIAL EQUALITY
Many of the key leaders in the Civil Rights Movement joined in the teachings of Mahatmas Gandhi. His peaceful ways had gathered their attention because he successfully achieved his goals in India without the use of violence. Farmer adhered to these same principles and used them to create protesting ideas that were unique and targeted to change the injustices he saw in the world.
Using the ideas passed down from Gandhi, and the organization he learned from the FOR, a group he had been active in, Farmer and a small group of friends founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) on February in a coffee shop that refused them, as Blacks, service. This peaceful protest became one of the many Farmer and his group would participate in.
This same concept of waiting for service in a place that refused to serve colored patrons soon became known as a “sit in”, and was a popular technique used by the CORE and other Civil Rights groups. Many different forms of these “In’s” occurred, making them useful to the CORE in many different ways.
“Direct action plays an important role for the country”
-- Marvin Rich
“It (the CORE) has followed a course of Gandhian nonviolence... as it staged wade-ins at swimming areas, sit-ins at lunch counters, stand-ins at movie theaters, even shoe-ins at shoe shine stands.”
-- Sid Moody
“A few of us try harder. A few of us try not at all. Yet the story of the CORE is the story of an effort- sustained and sustaining.”
-- Marvin Rich