Congress of Racial Equality
The
Congress of Racial Equality (or
CORE) was founded by a group of college students, led by
James L. Farmer, in
1942 who believed that nonviolent
civil disobedience could be used by African Americans to challenge
racial segregation in the southern region of the United States. On
April 9,
1947, CORE sent a group of eight white and eight black men on what was to be a two-week Journey of Reconciliation through
Virginia,
North Carolina,
Tennessee, and
Kentucky in an effort to end segregation in interstate travel. The members of this group were arrested and jailed several times, but they received a great deal of publicity, and this marked the beginning of a long series of similar campaigns.
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