Episode Recording -- "CORE Impacts: The Civil Rights Movement and Beyond"

CORE’s Methods: 01:00-03:40

This is the first talking point that is included in the podcast, and it references the founding

principles and goals that the Congress of Racial Equality was founded upon. The founding

members of this organization were students at the University of Chicago, and they were inspired

by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. CORE uses some of Gandhi’s methods including civil

disobedience. Some of their first action came in 1942 through the nonviolent protest form of

restaurant sit-ins. In this section, there is a firsthand account from a member of the Congress of

Racial Equality named Grace Bazmore. Bazmore talks about some of the defining principles that

CORE acts upon, putting a strict emphasis on their nonviolent methods.

CORE’s Pivotal Moments: 03:40- 06:30

The Congress of Racial Equality played a critical role in the awareness that was raised against the

oppression that African Americans were subjected to in this period of time. They took part and

even directed some of the most notable events that took place during the Civil Rights movement.

CORE played a pivotal role in supporting James Meredith in the completion of his “March

Against Fear.

” Meredith was sadly shot on the second day of his attempt to march from Memphis,

Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi. When CORE heard about this, they sent their own members to

complete this walk. CORE also assisted in the Freedom Summer movement that took place in

Mississippi in 1964. This movement was put into action to fight for the rights of African

American voter registration. Lastly, and likely one of the most influential movements in the civil

rights movement was the Freedom Riders. This was organized by James Farmer to protest

segregation on public transport, most notably the separation of black and white on public buses.CORE’s Impacts: 06:30- 9:05

This section talks about some of the impacts that the Congress of Racial Equality had on both

organizations during the Civil Rights movement, as well as the long lasting impact it has had in

more recent history. Martin Luther King’s organization, the Southern Christian Leadership

Conference, was founded after the creation of CORE under many Christian ideals. Some of

King’s tactics seemed to follow the footsteps of the peaceful protesting methods that CORE had

made popular. CORE encouraged a nationwide movement during the Civil Rights movement that

encouraged nationwide participation in peaceful protesting, believing this was the most efficient

and effective way to catalyze change. Lastly, there are connections made between CORE and the

more current movement, Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter was created to remember

injustices as well as push for change. Some of the peaceful protesting demonstrations that were

seen in the Congress of Racial Equality have also been seen in the Black Lives Matter Movement.

[00:09] Introduction

Hello, and welcome back, everybody, to another podcast episode. I'm your host, Charlie Teel. Today, I'm

going to be talking about one of the most influential organizations during the civil rights movement. We're

talking about the Congress of Racial Equality, also known as CORE. This organization was founded in

1942 by a group of college students, but they were led by their Director of Operations, James Farmer.

We're going to talk about him a little more later on in the episode. At their conception, CORE stood at

about 50 members, but according to a first-hand account of a member of the original Freedom Riders,

Charles Person, he noted that at the height of the civil rights movement, this organization had grown to

include around 50 chapters spanning across all of the United States.

Charles Person, Buses Are a Comin

Martin’s Press, 2021), 65.

’

: Memoir of a Freedom Rider, (New York, New York: St.

[01:00] CORE’s Methods

All right, without further ado, let's dive into our first talking point. We're going to be talking about how

CORE used some of the original teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and his idea of peaceful protest. A little

bit more about these founding members of CORE. These founding members were students of the

University of Chicago. According to a lecture from Dr. Maginn, these students were inspired by the

original teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, in particular, his peaceful protest techniques. According to an

article from Abraham Mutlury and Samuel John Aduri that dives a little more into the life of Mahatma

Gandhi, Gandhi was often credited with some of the original and the first forms of peaceful protests. In

particular, one of his most famous forms of peaceful protests is referred to as civil disobedience. In

simpler terms, civil disobedience can be described as the act of an individual or people simply disobeying

a law that might be seen as oppressive or harmful to certain groups of people. Next piece of evidence

we're going to talk about- we'll talk about some of the first action that CORE gets into in 1942 in Chicago.

According to a lecture from Dr. Andrew Maginn, This first course of action for CORE was seen in their

peaceful protests demonstrated by way of a restaurant sit-in. We see a lot of these examples through

history, and these were some of the first times we've seen this protest. This next piece of evidence, we're

going to be taking a look at a first-hand account of one of the members of CORE, and we're going to see

what she says about some of their founding principles and their goals. Speaker 2: Core was Congress of

Racial Equality, and it was an organization based on the beliefs of Gandhi because the idea was to

confront violence with nonviolence. That was the way we went about doing whatever it was that we were-This is a great way to sum up the core values of the Congress of Racial Equality and summarize their

immediate goals and their impacts in the civil rights movement.

Dr. Andrew Maginn,

“Civil Rights Part One,

” History 202: History of The United States II,

(class lecture, Sewanee: The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, March 24, 2025).

Abraham Mutluri & Samuel John Aduri,

“Social Action Models and Movements of Mahatma

Gandhi: A Review,

” Gandhian Vision 11, no. 1 (January 2024), 265.

Grace Bazmore,

“A Member of the Congress of Racial Equality,

” V oices of the Civil Rights

Movement, November 7, 2022, Youtube Video, 0:00-0:20,

https://youtu.be/O-PZMs0kyo0?si=05sQVWRpOpGOxlbQ

[03:40] CORE’s Pivotal Moments

Next, let's get into our second talking point. Here we'll be talking about some of the pivotal roles and

some of the defining moments that CORE played in the civil rights movement. First, we'll talk about

CORE's role in finishing the March Against Fear. According to a lecture from Dr. Andrew Maginn about

the 1960s and 1970s, James Meredith started the March Against Fear. This was a form of peaceful protest

that included gathering individuals to participate in a march from Memphis, Tennessee, all the way to

Jackson, Mississippi. Unfortunately, this march came to a breaching halt when on day two, James

Meredith was tragically shot. Core heard about this, and they immediately mobilized members to go and

take part in this march and finish this walk in solidarity for its founder, James Meredith. Another impact

that CORE had came when they assisted in the Freedom Summer in Mississippi in 1964. According to the

American YAWP textbook, this was a gathering in an event to raise awareness for African-American

voter registration rights. Mississippi was a state obviously known for its racial segregation. This was an

important thing to stand up for these oppressive things that made it difficult for African-Americans to

gain their right to vote and become registered. Lastly, let's talk about arguably one of the most influential

moments in the civil rights movement. We'll be talking about the Freedom Writers. Luckily, we get a

first-hand account from an original member of the Freedom Writers, Charles Person, in his memoir,

Busses Are Coming, the memoir of a Freedom Writer. Person talks about how he was trained personally

by the director of CORE, James Farmer, and how he was trained to take part in these acts and how he

would take part in this peaceful protest displayed on the desegregation of public transportation. A little bit

more information about Person. He was actually the youngest member of the Freedom Writers. During

their display of this protest in 1961, Charles Person was only 18 years old at the time when he took part in

this influential display of protests during the civil rights era.

Dr. Andrew Maginn,“Black Power and the 1960s/1970s,  History 202: History of The United

States II, (class lecture, Sewanee: The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, March 24,

2025).

Joseph L. Locke, and Ben Wright, “The Sixties,” in The American Yawp: A Massively

Collaborative open US History Textbook, Vol 2: Since 1877, (Stanford, California: Stanford

University Press, 2023), 324.

Charles Person, Buses Are a Comin: Memoir of a Freedom Rider, (New York, New York: St.

Martin’s Press, 2021), 65.[06:30] CORE’s Impacts

Next, let's get right into our third talking point. We're going to be talking about CORE's Methods of

Peaceful Protest and how it influenced other groups, other organizations, and even other movements. In

an article titled The NAACP, Black Power, and the African-American Freedom Struggle, author Simon

Hall talks about some of the other groups that were created during the civil rights movement. He focuses

on Martin Luther King Jr’s group that he created called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

This organization adopted similar nonviolent ways of advocating for change. While MLK's group was

founded to prioritize Christian values, they also demonstrated peaceful protest methods that often mimic

those of the same values that CORE followed. Another article that discusses CORE and some of its

strategies talks about how their main goal encouraged nationwide involvement in non-violent and direct

action. The author of this article, Marvin Rich, talks about how this call to action was encouraged

regardless of membership in CORE, as CORE was trying to push this idea of nonviolent protests across

all of the nation. Last piece of evidence. We're going to talk about how CORE influenced some of these

later groups to come. In the recent past, we have seen the foundation of the Black Lives Matter

movement. Blm was founded in 2012 after the devastating murder of Trayvon Martin, and it also gained

some more popularity after the tragic murder of George Floyd. According to an article that dives a little

bit more into Black Lives Matter, by W. M. Maina, some of their main goals, some of the main values of

BLM is to remember the injustices that happened in the past while also advocating for change in the

future. Over this period of time, we see a lot of these peaceful protests, and we see how they fall back on

the nonviolent ways of their predecessors and how they follow the values that were established by the

Congress of Racial Equality.

Dr. Andrew Maginn,“Civil Rights Part Two, History 202: History of The United States II,

(class lecture, Sewanee: The University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee, March 24, 2025).

Simon Hall, “The NAACP, Black Power, and the African American Freedom Struggle, 1966-1969,

” The Historian, Spring 2007, V ol. 69, No. 1; 49-82.

Marvin Rich,

"The Congress of Racial Equality and Its Strategy,

" The Annals of the American

Academy of Political and Social Science, 357, no. 1, (1965): 113-118.

W.M. Maina,

"Black Lives Matter (BLM): A Perspective from Liberation and Political

Theologies,

" Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies, 22, no. 64, (2023): 20-33.

[09:05] Outro

Well, everybody, that's going to do it for this podcast episode. I want to thank you for listening. Lastly, I

also want to prompt you to visit the historical podcast website and make sure to tune into any episodes

that might come in the future. Make sure you stay up to date with these weekly episodes. This is your

host, Charlie and as always, I'll catch you next time. Thank you for listening.