Notable for his membership in several key civil rights organizations, including the Black Workers Congress and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, this Chicago-born member of the Black Panther Party established and headed a political consulting organization known as James Forman and Associates.
He studied at and/or earned degrees from a number of universities, including the University of Southern California; Roosevelt University; Boston University; Cornell University; and the Institute of Policy Studies/Union of Experimental Colleges and Universities.
An author and professor as well as an activist, he published works such as The Making of Black Revolutionaries (1972). He taught at both American University and Morgan State University.
He spent his childhood in both Chicago, Illinois and Marshall County, Mississippi, and later lived in the Atlanta, Georgia and Washington, D.C. areas. After marrying and divorcing Mary Forman, followed by Mildred Thompson, Forman had two sons with Constancia Romilly.
Forman and fellow civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael were both involved with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the Black Panther Party.