Lay Bare the Heart

Lay Bare the Heart is a 1985 memoir by civil rights activist James Farmer, a man considered one of the most important, albeit often overlooked, figures of that movement. Farmer, whose interpretation of nonviolent resistance heavily influenced Martin Luther King, Jr., writes about his involvement with the fight for civil rights as well as his own personal and emotional development, giving a more intimate aspect of the struggle for equality in this country. By conflating his own personal development with the growing civil rights movement, Farmer manages a bracingly honest look at himself and all his flaws that inform the manner in which the movement developed.

Farmer opens with a recollection of his involvement with the Freedom Riders, who organized bus trips into the segregated South in order to test recent court decisions that racially segregated bus services were unconstitutional. These plans sparked riots and counter-protests from many whites in the south, particularly in Alabama and Mississippi; Farmer is honest about his nervousness and fear as he prepared to head into the chaos. Having been elected the president of the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) just a few months earlier, Farmer had pledged to be an active leader and so felt compelled to make the journey, but was afraid. His struggle was exacerbated when his father passed away before the Freedom Riders had to traverse Alabama, where the greatest violence occurred, and Farmer admits relief. He rejoined the ride but had to be talked into getting on the bus again. Farmer recounts his experience of being arrested and processed, the ugly racial epithets and unfair treatment experienced by the protesters. He recounts how the prisoners sang and kept each other’s spirits up despite the conditions and fear.

Farmer then reflects on his youth and childhood, focusing on his father, who was a Ph.D. and a college professor. He recalls his sense of injustice and anger at the segregation his family had to deal with; recounting his anger at his father, who clearly understood the unfairness of the situation and the need for change but who worked within the system, acting subserviently to whites in order to get by. These childhood experiences inspired Farmer’s political involvement.



Farmer discusses his early political activities. As a fourteen-year-old, he enrolled in college and quickly became a part of the debate team that was invited to the White House by Eleanor Roosevelt in 1941. He and Roosevelt bonded immediately, and he challenged President Franklin Delano Roosevelt during the question and answer period, asking how Roosevelt could describe countries that had brutal colonial pasts as champions of freedom. He discusses his role as a conscientious objector in World War II. He then recounts the founding of the group that would eventually become CORE and his introduction to Gandhi-style pacifism and idea of nonviolent resistance. Farmer discusses his own intellectual development and his time at college, studying and absorbing information, and the teachers who influenced him and his ideas. He also describes his first marriage to Winnie in 1945; she became pregnant shortly afterward, but when she discovered a note from another woman in Farmer’s pocket and suffered a miscarriage, the couple quickly divorced. Farmer notes his continuing obsession with Winnie even after marrying his second wife Lula.

Farmer recounts the beginnings of the civil rights movement and his relationship with Martin Luther King, as well as his disagreements and divisions with other major actors in the movement, describing a complex menagerie of personalities instead of the simple, unified movement often presented in history books. He also describes his regret over not seeking alliances with white student groups who shared CORE’s main mission.

Farmer describes his evolving thought on civil rights, noting his dealing with President Lyndon Johnson that led to the coining of the term “affirmative action,” his own retreat from a color-blind movement to a black-lead movement, his debates with the more aggressive Malcolm X, and his thoughts on why Malcolm X was assassinated.



With surprising candor, Farmer discusses his motivations for accepting an appointment from President Richard Nixon to be Assistant Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1969, a position he resigned a year later amid frustration with politics. Farmer admits that after his leadership of CORE and the movement of the 1960s, he lacked direction and focus in his life.

Farmer’s biting honesty and clear-eyed assessment of his own contributions to the civil rights movement underscore the fact that the achievements in this arena in the 1950s and 1960s were not the inevitable results of unified heroes and progressive politicians but the passionate efforts of disparate men and women who often disagreed and, most importantly, experienced doubts and fear along the way. This combination of first-hand experience and brutal honesty makes Farmer’s memoir an important document of the fight for equality in this country.