Civil-rights organization founded in 1942 by several white students at the University of Chicago, along with black activists like James Farmer. CORE drew its inspiration from methods Gandhi employed in India, and developed the tactic of sit-ins, before their widespread adoption and success in 1960. Under Farmer’s leadership, it organized the freedom rides in 1961, which succeeded (after SNCC intervened to continue them to their conclusion) in pushing the Interstate Commerce Commission to prohibit segregated facilities at bus terminals.

CORE’s influence began to founder over the issue of the organization’s interracialism (much of its membership had been white and many leadership positions were not held by African Americans). Exasperated by the sluggishness of reform in the South, many blacks in CORE began to promote black nationalism, a shift that became explicit with the election of Roy Innis to national director in 1968. Innis moved the organization away from civil rights altogether, and, after centralizing the organization under his control, began to promote self-segregation and black capitalism. Attempts by old leaders to regain control of the organization failed, and it has become a bastion of black conservatism.