In 1942 with fellow staffer James Farmer and activist Bernice Fisher, and James Robinson he co-founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in Chicago. 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's organizing techniques and ideas on nonviolent civil disobedience. 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.