In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Foreword "DOING THIS BOOK has been a kind of catharsis,"James Farmer wrote in 1984 as he completed the manuscript of his remarkable autobiography . "It did not rid me of the past Instead, it placed that which has gone before in perspective, bringing me to terms with the present ..." This was the spirit that moved Farmer as he filled several hundred pages of legal-sized note pads with the hand-written memories of his role in the greatest social justice movement in the history of twentiethcentury America. Farmer's memories of a lifetime struggle against racial injustice were made available to the public in 1985 as his published memoir, Lay Bare the Heart. Widely praised for its soul-stirring eloquence and its unsparing honesty, Lay Bare the Heart has become one of the classic textual documentaries of the civil rights movement Never promoted or distributed properly, Lay Bare the Heart has been out ofprint for several years, and it has been hard to find even in the vibrant used book market This problem has now been remedied with the publication of this new edition by TCU Press. It is appropriate that Farmer's memoir bear the imprint of a Texas press. James Farmer is a native of the northeastern Texas town of Marshall, and he spent several of the most formative years ofhis childhood in east Austin, where his father was a professor at Samuel Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson). He returned to Marshall in 1933 and attended Wiley College before continuing his education at Howard University in Washington, D.C., in 1938. In the twbulent decades that followed, as Farmer planned and directed his campaigns of non- violent protest against racial segregation, the Lone Star state remained a presence in his life through his relationships and dealings with other native Texans such as attorney Percy Sutton, political activist and humoristJohn Henry Faulk, President Lyndon B.Johnson, and journalist Bill Moyers. Farmer's Texas roots played a role in his decision in April 1987 to donate his historically significant papers to the Center for American History at The University of Texas at Austin. The Center is a specialcollections library, archive, and museum that facilitates research and sponsors programs on the historical development of the United States. The Farmer papers, which document his life and career from 1942 until the late 1980s, include a significant collection of material related to his work with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), especially in the early 1940s and during his service as national director from 1961 until 1966. The papers also contain extensive documentation of three organizations that Farmer founded in the 1960s and 1970s: the Center for Community Action Education, the Council on Minority Planning and Strategy (COMPAS), and the Public Policy Training Institute. In addition, the Farmer papers contain important material relating to his unsuccessful campaign for Congress in 1968 and his tenure as assistant secretary of the U. S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (1969-1970). Farmer's handwritten drafts of Lay Bare the Heart are also in the papers. Because ofJames Farmer's generous gift, an important archive of the civil rights movement is now preserved and available for reference and study at the Center's Research and Collections unit on the campus of UT-Austin. James Farmer currently resides near Fredericksburg, Virginia, where he teaches history at Mary Washington College. He also serves as a member of the Advisory Council of the Center for American History. In a White House ceremony inJanuary 1998, President Bill Clinton officially recognized Farmer's contributions to the civil rights movement by awarding him with the nation's highest civilian honor: the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Don E. Carleton Director, Centerfor American History ...

Share