George Houser

Born in 1916, George M. Houser was the son of missionaries, and spent portions of his early life in the Far East. He served on the staff of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in the 1940s and '50s. With James Farmer, Bernice Fisher, James R. Robinson, Homer Jack, and Joe Guinn, he co-founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1942 in Chicago. [Fellowship magazine of the Fellowship of Reconciliation 1992, Spring, Summer and Winter issues.] ["Oral Histories" The Reminiscences of George Houser (April 1999) in the Oral History Collection of Columbia University in New York City.] [LAY BARE THE HEART: An Autobiography of the CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT, James Farmer, A Plume Book, New American Library, Copyright 1985 by James Farmer.] With Bayard Rustin, another FOR staffer, Houser, a white Methodist minister, co-led the Journey of Reconciliation, the first interracial Freedom Ride through the South in 1947, in response to the Supreme Court's ruling in Irene Morgan vs. Virginia the previous Year.

Houser left the FOR in the 1950s and turned his attention to African liberation struggles. He led the American Committee on Africa for many years, spending decades on the continent promoting freedom from colonial rule.

His African solidarity work dates to 1952 when he helped found Americans for South African Resistance (AFSAR) to organize support in the U.S. for the ANC-led Defiance Campaign against apartheid in South Africa. He was a founder in 1953 of the American Committee on Africa (ACOA) which grew out of AFSAR. In 1954 he took his first trip to Africa, visiting West Africa and South Africa, the only time he got into that country until 1991. He served as Executive Director of the ACOA from 1955-1981 and of The Africa Fund from 1966-1981. At ACOA he spearheaded numerous campaigns supporting African struggles for liberation and independence from Algeria to Zimbabwe. Since 1954 he has made over 30 trips to Africa and his support of liberation movements led him to develop close ties with many African leaders including Amilcar Cabral, Julius Nyerere, Eduardo Mondlane, Kwame Nkrumah, and Oliver Tambo. He is the author of numerous articles and two books No One Can Stop the Rain: Glimpses of Africa’s Liberation Struggle (New York: Pilgrim Press, 1989) and, with Herbert Shore, I Will Go Singing: Walter Sisulu Speaks of his Life and the Struggle for Freedom in South Africa (Cape Town: Robben Island Museum, 2000). He currently serves on the Advisory Committee of the [African Activist Archive Project] [http://www.africanactivist.msu.edu/] .

His son, Steven Houser, is currently an AP European History teacher in Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, New York.

References

"No One Can Stop the Rain: Glimpses of Africa’s Liberation Struggle," George Houser, 1989, The Pilgrim Press, forward by Julius Nyerere.

Tribute to George Houser (American Committee on Africa, 1981)

Meeting Africa’s Challenge – The Story of the American Committee on Africa by George M. Houser, Issue magazine (African Studies Association, 1976)

African Activist Archive Project http://www.africanactivist.msu.edu/

There is much discussion by Farmer and Houser on the founding of CORE in several issues of Fellowship magazine of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 1992 (Spring, Summer and Winter issues) and a conference on Oct. 22 that year, "Erasing the Color Line in the North," on CORE and the origins of the Civil Rights Movement at Bluffton College in Bluffton, Ohio, attended by both Houser and Farmer. Academics and the participants themselves unanimously agreed that the founders of CORE were Jim Farmer, George Houser and Bernice Fisher. The conference has been preserved on videotape available from Bluffton College.

A small group of people of a cell of the Fellowship of Reconciliation provided a group of people for the beginnings of the Committee of Racial Equality (CORE). James Farmer said he started CORE and he acknowledged this dual origination of CORE in Fellowship Magazine. George Houser also cited the members of this cell as co-founders of CORE in "Oral Histories, The Reminiscences of George Houser," April 1999. Farmer also addresses the founding of CORE and the first meeting in his book Lay Bare The Heart. The founding members of CORE thus included James L. Farmer, Jr., Bernice Fisher, George Houser, James Russell Robinson, Homer Jack and Joe Guinn.

External links

* [http://www.robinwashington.com/jimcrow/1_home.html PBS documentary on Journey of Reconciliation]
* [http://www.rustin.org PBS documentary on Bayard Rustin]
* [http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/gwar.html The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It] PBS documentary of conscientious objectors in World War II.Material by George M. Houser is available on the website of the African Activist Archive Project http://www.africanactivist.msu.edu/