The Resume

(January 12, 1920-July 9, 1999)
Born in Marshall, Texas
Founding member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE, 1942)
National director of CORE (1961-66)
Organized Freedom Rides to test desegregation of public facilities in the South (1961)
Considered one of the 'Big Four' of 60s civil rights leaders, along with Martin Luther King, Jr., Whitney Young and Roy Wilkins
Received the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1998)

Why he might be annoying:

He noted that as a 'faculty brat' at a historically black university, he was shielded from the worst of racism growing up.
He considered a career in medicine until he realized he could not stand the sight of blood.
His first marriage broke up when his wife discovered a note from his mistress (and second wife) in his coat pocket.
He ran unsuccessfully for Congress, losing to Shirley Chisholm (1968).

Why he might not be annoying:

He enrolled in college at age 14.
He was captain of the college debate team.
When Attorney General Robert F Kennedy suggested that CORE postpone some Freedom Rides so the situation could 'cool off,' Farmer refused, saying 'We have been cooling off for 350 years.'
He noted that the Freedom Rides eventually forced the Interstate Commerce Commission to issue a new order, 'with teeth in it,' to ban segregation in interstate travel.
While he was organizing protests in the town of Plaquemine, Louisiana, state troopers armed with guns, cattle prods and tear gas hunted for him door to door. He escaped by playing dead in the back of a hearse that a funeral home director drove out of town (1963).
When more militant blacks urged him to abandon nonviolence and fight back, he would reply, 'We are fighting back, only we're using new weapons.'

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 52]
• Celebrities Born on the Same Date [January] (Ranked: 1121920)
• Celebrity Juniors
• Civil Rights Activists
• I am a Texan
• I Attended Howard University
• I Attended Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Funeral [April 9, 1968]
• I Died in 1999 (Ranked: 79)
• I Have Diabetes
• I Married Outside My Race
• I Sought Political Office
• Influenced by Bayard Rustin
• Profiles 35251-35500 (Ranked: 35396)
• U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients

Year In Review:

For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 55.56% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 10 Votes: 70.0% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 6 Votes: 16.67% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 16 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 32 Votes: 34.38% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 27 Votes: 55.56% Annoying