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Congress of Racial Equality Facts

Congress of Racial Equality Facts
The Congress of Racial Equality, usually abbreviated as CORE, is an American civil rights organization that was founded in 1942 to advocate against discrimination in all areas of American society. Although the majority of CORE's founding members were white, it is traditionally considered a black organization that has fought for the interests of black Americans. CORE had its greatest impact on America during the 1950s and 1960s, when it challenged the segregation laws in the southern states. Members of CORE went to the south to take part in the Freedom Rides, registered blacks to vote, and played a central role in the March on Washington during the 1960s. Although CORE's public profile has greatly diminished from what it was in the '60s, it is still an active organization.
Interesting Congress of Racial Equality Facts:
Roy Innis was the National Chairman of CORE from 1968 until his death in 2017.
During the mid-1960s, CORE became a black nationalist organization and even expelled white members. When Innis took over he gradually moved the organization in the opposite political trajectory and even supported President Nixon's 1972 reelection campaign.
Innis got into two fights on the Morton Downey Junior talk show in 1988. The first was with the then corpulent civil rights activist Al Sharpton and another show with white nationalist John Metzger.
CORE was heavily influenced by the ideology and tactics of Mahatma Gandhi, who was still active when the organization began.
While James Farmer was the National Chairman of CORE, he believed that it was a good idea to allow black nationalists into the organization for self-defense purposes.
Long before the Freedom Rides of the early 1960s, CORE led a smaller effort to desegregate interstate buses in 1947. The project, called the "Journey of Reconciliation," involved eight white and eight black CORE members riding on segregated buses in the south and getting arrested in order to draw publicity to their cause.
During the early and mid-1960s CORE was particularly active in Chicago, challenging segregation in the city's schools and neighborhoods.
Scholars generally believe that CORE's brief flirtation with black nationalism probably hampered the organization's effectiveness.
CORE is opposed to same-sex marriage.
CORE has an office in the African nation of Uganda
At its peak in the mid-1960s, CORE had over fifty chapters throughout the country, with most major cities having an office.
CORE played a major role in the Greensboro sit-ins of 1960. After the sit-ins began, CORE members helped organize more protests and met with the press to articulate the protesters demands.
Early CORE members, such as James Farmer, later criticized the conservative political direction the organization took beginning in the 1970s.
Roy Innis' son, Niger, is the current National Chairman of CORE.
CORE was instrumental in starting "Freedom Schools" in the deep south during the mid-1960s. The schools were used to train activists, help blacks register to vote, and to teach literacy.
Civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, who were killed by members of the Ku Klux Klan in 1964, were members of CORE.


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