Farmer

=In Film=

Denzel Washington directs & stars in The Great Debaters (2007) about Wiley College (Marshall, TX) in the 1930's


 * In the following clip (at the 6 min mark) see an artistic rendition of the debaters in action and a reception for them at the home of J. Leonard Farmer (played by Forest Whitaker)


 * http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEi5QDfgKu0

Melvin B. Tolson (played by Washington) wrote a column for the Washington Tribune entitled "The Radical Jesus" in which he describes the experience of hearing a masterful sermon, preached on Mother's Day, by Rev. Dr. J. Leonard Farmer.

Farmer was recruited to teach New Testament at Howard Univ. in 1938 by Benjamin Elijah Mays, a son of South Carolina sharecroppers, who was at that time the Dean of the School of Religion and who would go on to become the President of Morehouse College, a mentor to MLK, Jr. and his eulogizer.

=Background=

Historical Marker Research by Gail K. Beil
 * http://www.cets.sfasu.edu/Harrison/Farmer/marker.htm
 * http://www.cets.sfasu.edu/harrison/farmer/etha.htm

Farmer bio at Handbook of Texas Online
 * http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/FF/ffa30.html

Isaiah 2:4
 * http://bible.cc/isaiah/2-4.htm

Matthew 6:9
 * http://bible.cc/matthew/6-9.htm

Visions of possibility among people on earth

=Works=

"My father wrote all the time" says Farmer's son, James, Jr., but virtually all the papers from the 40-year career have been lost.

John and Jesus in their day and ours: social studies in the Gospels (New York : Psycho-Medical Library, 1956) usually available via interlibrary loan