George Mills Houser (June 2, 1916 – August 19, 2015) was an American

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

minister,

civil rights activist Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

, and activist for the independence of African nations. He served on the staff of the

Fellowship of Reconciliation The Fellowship of Reconciliation (FoR or FOR) is the name used by a number of religious nonviolent organizations, particularly in English-speaking countries. They are linked by affiliation to the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR). ...

(1940s – 1950s). With

James Farmer James Leonard Farmer Jr. (January 12, 1920 – July 9, 1999) was an American civil rights activist and leader in the Civil Rights Movement "who pushed for nonviolent protest to dismantle segregation, and served alongside Martin Luther King Jr." H ...

and

Bernice Fisher Elsie Bernice Fisher (December 8, 1916 – May 2, 1966) was a civil rights activist and union organizer. She was among the co-founders of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1942 in Chicago, Illinois. Civil rights leader and union organiz ...

, he co-founded the

Congress of Racial Equality The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African Americans, African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission ...

(CORE) in 1942 in Chicago.''Fellowship'' magazine, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Spring, Summer and Winter 1992 issues."The Reminiscences of George Houser" (April 1999), ''Oral Histories'', Oral History Collection, Columbia UniversityJames Farmer, ''Lay Bare the Heart: An Autobiography of the Civil Rights Movement'', A Plume Book, New American Library, 1985 With

Bayard Rustin Bayard Rustin (; March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was an African American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. Rustin worked with A. Philip Randolph on the March on Washington Movement, in 19 ...

, another FOR staffer, Houser co-led the

Journey of Reconciliation The Journey of Reconciliation, also called "First Freedom Ride", was a form of nonviolent direct action to challenge state segregation laws on interstate buses in the Southern United States. Bayard Rustin and 18 other men and women were the ea ...

, a form of

nonviolent direct action Direct action originated as a political activism, activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic power, economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those a ...

, a two-week interracial bus journey challenging segregation. It was a model for the 1961 Freedom Rides that CORE and the

Nashville Student Movement The Nashville Student Movement was an organization that challenged racial segregation in Nashville, Tennessee during the Civil Rights Movement. It was created during workshops in nonviolence taught by James Lawson. The students from this orga ...

later organized through the Deep South.

Early life and education

George Houser was born in 1916 to parents who were

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

. As a child, he spent several years with them in the

Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...

, largely in the Philippines. After studying at what is now the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., the young Mr. Houser completed his undergraduate work at the University of Denver. He then attended Union Theological Seminary, where he served as chairman of the school's social action commission. Houser, along with

David Dellinger David T. Dellinger (August 22, 1915 – May 25, 2004) was an American pacifist and an activist for nonviolent social change. He achieved peak prominence as one of the Chicago Seven, who were put on trial in 1969. Early life and schooling Delli ...

, was among twenty Union students who announced publicly that they would defy the

Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, also known as the Burke–Wadsworth Act, , was the first peacetime conscription in United States history. This Selective Service Act required that men who had reached their 21st birthday b ...

. In November 1940 Houser was arrested for refusing to be drafted. He served a year in jail. After college, Houser was ordained as a Methodist minister. He soon became involved in movements for social justice and civil rights.

Career

Houser joined the

in the 1940s and worked with it until the 1950s. It sponsored education and activities related to civil rights for African Americans and the end of segregation. In 1942 with fellow staffer

and activist

, and James Robinson he co-founded the

(CORE) in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Houser served as its first executive secretary. Farmer, Bayard Rustin and Houser were all influenced at this time by Krishnalal Shridharani's Columbia University Doctoral thesis published in 1939 as ''War Without Violence''. Shridharani was secretary to Gandhi and codified

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, Anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure ...

's organizing techniques and ideas on nonviolent

civil disobedience Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government (or any other authority). By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hen ...

. They decided to apply the same methods in their work for civil rights. Houser's codification of Shridharani's rules enabled CORE to engage in nonviolent actions. In 1946 Houser, along with Dave Dellinger, Igal Roodenko, Lew Hill, and others, helped found the radical pacifist

Committee for Nonviolent Revolution The Committee for Nonviolent Revolution (CNVR) was a pacifist organization founded in Chicago at a conference held on February 6 to 9, 1946. Many of the founding members were conscientious objectors who had served time in prison or in Civilian Pub ...

. In 1947, after the US Supreme Court's finding (in ''Morgan v. Commonwealth'') that segregation in interstate travel was unconstitutional, Houser helped organize the

. This was a plan to send eight white and eight black men on a journey through Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky to test the ruling. The protest brought a great deal of press attention to CORE and to the issue of segregation in interstate travel. In February 1948 George Houser received the Thomas Jefferson Award for his work to bring an end to segregation on interstate buses and in their facilities. In 1948, Houser was the secretary of the Resist Conscription Committee. He described the RCC as a temporary group of pacifists, whose purpose was to gather names of people who were willing to resist conscription. The group circulated a statement which read, in part:

Conscription fails to prevent war, foments further warlike preparation by our opponents, and denies fundamental freedoms of the individual necessary to democracy. This violates our deepest convictions that no person should be forcibly coerced into adopting a military way of life. We believe human beings are fit for something better, something nobler than slavery and training in the mass extermination of their fellows.

In 1949, Houser moved to Skyview Acres, an

intentional community An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...

Pomona, New York Pomona is a village partly in the town of Ramapo and partly in the town of Haverstraw in Rockland County, New York, United States. It is located north of New Hempstead, east of Harriman State Park, north of Monsey and west of Mount Ivy. Acco ...

. In 2010, he received the Republic of South Africa’s Oliver R. Tambo Award. In the same year he moved to California, where he lived until his death. Houser died on August 19, 2015 at the age of 99 in

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa (Spanish language, Spanish for "Rose of Lima, Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, California, Sonoma County, in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area ...

African Independence movements

Houser left the FOR in the 1950s, when he turned his attention to African liberation struggles. Nations were seeking independence from colonial rulers. Houser led the

American Committee on Africa American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

for many years, spending decades on the continent to promote freedom from colonial rule and segregation. In 1952 he helped found "Americans for South African Resistance" (AFSAR) to organize support in the U.S. for the

ANC The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

-led Defiance Campaign against apartheid in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. 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. In 1960, as president of ACOA, Houser sent a telegram to

Dwight Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

urging him to officially condemn the treatment of Africans by South Africa. Because of his continuing activities for independence and against

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

, Houser was not permitted to enter South Africa again until 1991, after the end of the apartheid government. From 1955–1981, Houser served as Executive Director of the ACOA; he also was Executive Director of The Africa Fund from 1966–1981. At ACOA he spearheaded numerous campaigns supporting African struggles for liberation and independence, from

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

. In an interview in 2004 he reflected on his work with ACOA and the transcript was published in the book No Easy Victories. From 1954 to 2015 he made over 30 trips to Africa. His support of liberation movements led him to develop close ties with many African leaders, including

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

Walter Sisulu Walter Max Ulyate Sisulu (18 May 1912 – 5 May 2003) was a South African anti-apartheid activist and member of the African National Congress (ANC). Between terms as ANC Secretary-General (1949–1954) and ANC Deputy President (1991–1994), h ...

Amílcar Cabral Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral (; – ) was a Bissau-Guinean and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer, pan-Africanist, intellectual, poet, theoretician, revolutionary, political organizer, nationalist and diplomat. He was one of Africa's forem ...

Julius Nyerere Julius Kambarage Nyerere (; 13 April 1922 – 14 October 1999) was a Tanzanian anti-colonial activist, politician, and political theorist. He governed Tanganyika as prime minister from 1961 to 1962 and then as president from 1962 to 1964, aft ...

Eduardo Mondlane Eduardo Chivambo Mondlane (20 June 1920 – 3 February 1969) was the President of the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO) from 1962, the year that FRELIMO was founded in Tanzania, until his assassination in 1969. Born in Mozambique, h ...

Kwame Nkrumah Kwame Nkrumah (born 21 September 190927 April 1972) was a Ghanaian politician, political theorist, and revolutionary. He was the first Prime Minister and President of Ghana, having led the Gold Coast to independence from Britain in 1957. An in ...

, and

Oliver Tambo Oliver Reginald Kaizana Tambo (27 October 191724 April 1993) was a South African anti-apartheid politician and revolutionary who served as President of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1967 to 1991. Biography Higher education Oliv ...

. He served on the Advisory Committee of the African Activist Archive Project.

Personal life and death

Houser married and raised four children with his wife, Jean. His son, Steven, previously taught history at

Horace Greeley High School Horace Greeley High School is a public, four-year secondary school serving students in grades 9– 12 in Chappaqua, New York, United States. It is part of the Chappaqua Central School District. It is consistently ranked among the top high scho ...

Chappaqua, New York Chappaqua ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of New Castle, in northern Westchester County, New York, United States. It is approximately north of New York City. The hamlet is served by the Chappaqua station of the Metro- ...

. Steven now teaches World Civilizations at

Grand Valley State University Grand Valley State University (GVSU, GV, or Grand Valley) is a public university in Allendale, Michigan. It was established in 1960 as Grand Valley State College. Its main campus is situated on approximately west of Grand Rapids. The universit ...

. His grandson, Chris, taught at

Scarsdale High School Scarsdale High School (SHS) is a public high school in Scarsdale, New York, United States, a coterminous town and village in Westchester County, New York. It is a part of the Scarsdale Union Free School District. The school was founded in 1917. ...

. Houser died on August 19, 2015 at the age of 99 in

Selected works

*
No One Can Stop The Rain: Glimpses of Africa's Liberation Struggle
' (New York: Pilgrim Press, 1989) * 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). *Frazier, Nishani (2017). ''Harambee City: Congress of Racial Equality in Cleveland and the Rise of Black Power Populism''. University of Arkansas Press.

References

External links

Robin Washington, "Journey of Reconciliation
PBS documentary
Bayard Rustin
PBS documentary

PBS documentary on

conscientious objectors A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

in World War II.
Civic Knowledge Project documentary on the origins of COREHarambee City
Archival site incorporating documents, maps, audio/visual materials related to CORE's work in black power and black economic development {{DEFAULTSORT:Houser, George 1916 births 2015 deaths Activists for African-American civil rights American Methodists American tax resisters Nonviolence advocates Recipients of the Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo Pfeffer Peace Prize laureates War Resisters League activists Freedom Riders