James Farmer Jr.: The Great Debater

by Ben Voth associate professor, communication; director of speech and debate, Souther

Overview

James Farmer Jr.: The Great Debater provides a rhetorical and biographical guide to how the American Civil Rights Movement came into being. It details James Farmer Jr.’s intellectual emergence as a young debater at an HBCU in Marshall, Texas and ultimately chronicles how this led to the emergence of the first non-violent sit-in against segregation in 1942 in Chicago. Farmer was a key founder of the Congress of Racial Equality [CORE] that pioneered the non-violent strategies that would later be used by Martin Luther King. He debated important figures like Malcolm X to provide a powerful advocacy grounded in the praxis of argumentation. Ben Voth demonstrates the ongoing relevance of Farmer’s successful debate methodology in resolving contemporary race problems in the 21st century such as Black Lives Matter.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498539647
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	04/13/2017
Series:	Lexington Studies in Political Communication
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	210
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Ben Voth isassociate professor of corporate communications and public affairs and director of debate at Southern Methodist University.

Table of Contents

Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction Why James Farmer Jr. Matters Today
Chapter 1. The Family of James Farmer Jr.
Chapter 2. James Farmer Jr. at Wiley College—1934-1938
Chapter 3. The Debate Coach: Melvin Tolson
Chapter 4. From Minister to Advocate Against Segregation
Chapter 5. The first Sit-in— Jack Spratt in 1942
Chapter 6. The Freedom Rides 1961
Chapter 7. The MOW 1963 and Freedom Summer 1964
Chapter 8. Malcolm X and James Farmer Jr.
Chapter 9. Republican for Congress and the Nixon Years
Chapter 10. James Farmer and the Matter of Black Lives Today
Chapter 11. The implications of Farmer Today
Appendix Malcolm X debates James Farmer Jr. at Cornell
References
About the Author

Editorial Reviews

Voth vividly recounts the story of perhaps the greatest forgotten hero of the Civil Rights Movement. This book is an inspiring chronicle of a forgotten legacy, which is unknowingly embedded in the very fabric of the lives of all Americans.

Christopher Medina

James Farmer was considered by many to be the intellectual of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s. He was one of those charismatic leaders whose words and actions affected change not only in the United States but also all over the world. Now he’s been largely forgotten, but Ben Voth, in his book, James Farmer Jr.: The Great Debater, sheds new light on Farmer and one of the great reasons that he was able to do what he did. It adds new light to Farmer’s enduring legend.

Gail Beil