James Forman, 76, key activist among youth during civil rights movement in '60s dies

Jet, Jan 31, 2005

James Forman, the civil rights leader who had the best rapport among Black students during the confrontational '60s, died quietly at a Washington, D.C. hospice.

He was 76 and suffered from cancer.

Throughout his civil rights career, Forman stayed in the highest leadership ranks of the Civil Rights Movement where his ideas quickly were formulated into policy.

The son of a Chicago jitney driver, he graduated from the city's Roosevelt University and briefly served as a reporter for the Chicago Defender newspaper.

An assignment on Northern civil rights workers in the South, reportedly set him on his career path in civil rights.

He was regarded as the most independent and fearless in his desire to promote ideas fostering Black equality.

Moving into the front ranks of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) under John Lewis, now a U.S. congressman, Forman was elected its executive secretary in 1961.

The organization was founded by college student leaders in 1960 to coordinate their civil rights efforts in the South. Under Forman's guidance, it provided critical support for the Freedom Rides and focused on voter registration and direct action. Recalled Lewis, "He was the glue that held the young people together. He did a tremendous job in convincing them that they had a stake in the outcome."

He is remembered for insisting that the organization buy its headquarters building, keep records and maintain a credible business operation.

Forman resigned his SNCC post in 1966, and briefly served with the Black Panther Party.

One of his most controversial moments came when he interrupted services at the Riverside Church in Manhattan to press his Black Manifesto which called for payment of $500 million in reparations for crimes perpetuated on generations of Blacks during slavery.

Never one to stay silent, Forman promoted the second March on Washington in 1982 and lobbied against the appointment of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork and the presidential campaign of former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke.

In recent years, he served as president of his Unemployment and Poverty Action Committee in Washington.

Forman also earned a master's degree from Cornell and a doctorate from the Union Institute.

He was twice divorced and his survivors include two sons, Chaka and James.