9781422277775

C H A P T E R 2 A FAST LEARNER J ames Leonard Farmer, Jr., was born inMarshall, Texas, on January 12, 1920. The second of Pearl and James Leonard Farmer, Sr.’s 3 children, he was just 17 months younger than his sister, Helen, but nearly 8 years older than his brother, Nathaniel. In spite of the difference in their ages, they all found it exceedinglydifficult toescape fromthe tight gripof their domineering father. “Being the son of a preacher does not really define my early childhood,” James Farmer, Jr., wrote in Lay Bare the Heart . ”Daddy was a minister, it is true, with all that implies. But he had another mystique.” Stern and strong willed, James, Sr., known to everybody as J. Leonard, had managed toacquirea first-rateeducationeven thoughhe came fromhumblebeginnings. The son of impoverished former slaves, he finished grade school in Georgia, then worked his way through the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute, the celebrated Florida school for blacks that educator Mary McLeod Bethune had founded in 1904. Upon graduating from the Daytona Institute as an honors student, J. Leonard was so eager to continue his education that he walked all the way from Florida to Boston and enrolled in Boston University, which had accepted his application. He received top grades at this school, too, supporting himself as a valet and carriage boy while earning a Ph.D. in religion.

CH A P T E R 2 : A FAS T L E A R N E R

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