DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm gonna pass it along to you. James Leonard Farmer, Sr., was born on June 12, 1886, and from the very start, the world was going to have to make room for him. He was the son of Carolina and Lorena Wilson Farmer, and he came up with a hunger for learning that just would not quit.
He studied first at Cookman Institute in Florida — already that's a young man with direction — and then he set his sights on Boston University. Now, some folks go to college and come out with a degree. James Farmer, Sr., went to Boston University and came out with three.
A bachelor's degree in 1913, a Bachelor of Sacred Theology in 1916, and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1918. And in between all that, he found time to attend graduate school at Harvard University in 1917. Let that sit a moment.
Boston, Harvard, three degrees, four years. The man was serious about his mind. He was an elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he served as pastor of churches in Marshall, Texarkana, and Galveston — Texas towns that each knew his voice from the pulpit.
But the classroom called him just as loud as the church ever did. He taught Philosophy and Religion at Wiley College right here, and then at Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi, and at Samuel Huston College in Austin — the school that's now known as Huston-Tillotson — and at Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia, and at Gulfside Ministerial Training School in Waveland, Mississippi, and at Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, D.C. That is a man who carried his gifts across this country and set them down wherever there were minds ready to receive them.
He was a popular speaker, and he didn't stop at the spoken word either. Farmer was the author of several books, along with Biblical commentary and articles for secular magazines. He married Pearl Houston, and together they raised three children.
Now, here's where the story opens into something even larger than one remarkable life. Their son — James Leonard Farmer, Jr. — became a prominent civil rights leader in the 1960s and the founder of the Congress of Racial Equality. The father poured decades into scholarship, ministry, and teaching, and something of all that found its way into a son who would help change the face of a nation.
James Leonard Farmer, Sr., retired in 1956, died on May 14, 1961, and was buried in Washington, D.C. A life built on learning, on faith, on words spoken and written and passed down. Some legacies you measure in degrees and pulpits.
Some you measure in what your children carry forward into history.
What the marker says
(June 12, 1886 - May 14, 1961) James Leonard Farmer, Sr., was the son of Carolina and Lorena Wilson Farmer. James Farmer studied at Cookman Institute in Florida before attending Boston University, where he received a bachelors degree in 1913, a Bachelor of Sacred Theology degree in 1916, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1918. He also attended graduate school at Harvard University in 1917. An elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church, Farmer served as pastor of churches in Marshall, Texarkana, and Galveston. He also taught Philosophy and Religion here at Wiley College, at Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi, at Samuel Huston (now Huston-Tillotson) College in Austin, at Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia, at Gulfside Ministerial Training School in Waveland, Mississippi, and at Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, D.C. A popular speaker, Farmer also was the author of several books, as well as Biblical commentary and articles for secular magazines. Farmer married Pearl Houston; they were the parents of three children. Their son, James Leonard Farmer, Jr., became a prominent civil rights leader in the 1960s and founder of the Congress of Racial Equality. Farmer, Sr., retired in 1956, died in 1961, and was buried in Washington, D.C. (1997)