George Mills Houser was an American Methodist minister, civil rights activist, and activist for the independence of African nations.
23 Facts About George Houser
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George Houser served on the staff of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
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George Houser was born in 1916 in Cleveland, Ohio, to parents who were Methodist missionaries, and as a child, he spent several years with them in the Far East, largely in the Philippines.
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George Houser then attended Union Theological Seminary, where he served as chairman of the school's social action commission.
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In November 1940 George Houser was arrested for refusing to be drafted.
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George Houser soon became involved in movements for social justice and civil rights.
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George Houser joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation in the 1940s and worked with it until the 1950s.
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In 1942, with fellow staffer James Farmer, activist Bernice Fisher and James Robinson, George Houser co-founded the Congress of Racial Equality in Chicago.
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Farmer, Bayard Rustin and George Houser were all influenced at this time by Krishnalal Shridharani's Columbia University doctoral thesis published in 1939 as War Without Violence.
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In 1947, after the US Supreme Court's finding that segregation in interstate travel was unconstitutional, Houser helped organize the Journey of Reconciliation.
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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.
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In 1948, George Houser was the secretary of the Resist Conscription Committee.
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George Houser described the RCC as a temporary group of pacifists, whose purpose was to gather names of people who were willing to resist conscription.
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In 1949, George Houser moved to Skyview Acres, an intentional community in Pomona, New York.
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George Houser died on August 19,2015, at the age of 99 in Santa Rosa, California.
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George Houser left the FOR in the 1950s, when he turned his attention to African liberation struggles.
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George Houser led the American Committee on Africa for many years, spending decades on the continent to promote freedom from colonial rule and segregation.
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George Houser was a founder in 1953 of the American Committee on Africa, which grew out of AFSAR.
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In 1960, as president of ACOA, George Houser sent a telegram to Dwight Eisenhower urging him to officially condemn the treatment of Africans by South Africa.
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From 1955 to 1981, George Houser served as Executive Director of the ACOA; he was Executive Director of The Africa Fund from 1966 to 1981.
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George Houser served on the Advisory Committee of the African Activist Archive Project.
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George Houser married and raised four children with his wife, Jean.
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George Houser died on August 19,2015, at the age of 99 in Santa Rosa, California.