James Farmer (1920-1994) co-founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1942 during a sit-in at a Chicago restaurant that refused to serve blacks. Farmer aimed the organization at "erasing the color line through methods of direct nonviolent action" with sit-ins, boycotts, marches and Freedom Rides. These early demonstrations protesting segregation in public facilities were met with hostility and violence. By the 1950s, as a result of direct action by CORE and the NAACP, public facilities in the North opened to blacks.

In 1961, Farmer traveled to Montgomery, Alabama, in support of a new round of Freedom Rides. Other civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., joined the cause as it gathered momentum.