Civil Rights: Farmer's War

The great legislative and judicial battles have been won. Local obstructionism yields, barrier by barrier, community by community, under the weight of law and the pressure of protest.

Now the crucial challenge facing the civil rights movement is to make legal equality meaningful in economic and educational terms. The change of focus was emphasized by last week's announcement that James Farmer would resign March 1 as national director of the Congress of Racial Equality to head a new anti-poverty group, the Center for Community Action Education.

Farmer, 45, a Howard University divinity graduate, helped organize CORE in 1942. He has...