Bayard Rustin
Encyclopedia
Bayard Rustin was an American
leader in social movement
s for civil rights
, socialism
, pacifism and non-violence, and gay rights.
In the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation
(FOR), Rustin practiced nonviolence
. He was a leading activist of the early 1947–1955 civil-rights movement
, helping to initiate a 1947 Freedom Ride
to challenge with civil disobedience
racial segregation
on interstate busing. He recognized Martin Luther King, Jr.
's leadership, and helped to organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
to strengthen King's leadership; Rustin promoted the philosophy of nonviolence and the practices of nonviolent resistance
, which he had observed while working with Gandhi's movement in India. Rustin became a leading strategist of the civil rights movement from 1955–1968. He was the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
, which was headed by A. Philip Randolph, the leading African-American labor-union president and socialist. Rustin also influenced young activists, such as Tom Kahn
and Stokely Carmichael
, in organizations like the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
(SNCC).
After the passage of the civil-rights legislation of 1964–1965, Rustin focused attention on the economic problems of working-class and unemployed African Americans, suggesting that the civil-rights movement had left its period of "protest" and had entered an era of "politics", in which the Black community had to ally with the labor movement. Rustin became the head of the AFL–CIO's A. Philip Randolph Institute, which promoted the integration of formerly all-white unions and promoted the unionization of African Americans. Rustin became an honorary chairperson of the Socialist Party of America
in 1972, before it changed its name to Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA); Rustin acted as national chairman of SDUSA during the 1970s. During the 1970s and 1980s, Rustin served on many humanitarian missions, such as aiding refugees from Communist Vietnam and Cambodia. He was on a humanitarian mission in Haiti when he died in 1987.
Rustin was a gay man who had been arrested for homosexual
behavior early in his life. Because homosexuality was criminalized through the 1960s and stigmatized through the 1970s, Rustin's sexuality was criticized by some fellow pacifists and civil-rights leaders. From the 1950s through the 1970s, Rustin was attacked as a "pervert" or "immoral influence" by political opponents, both segregationists and Black power
militants. To avoid such attacks, Rustin served only rarely as a public spokesperson. He usually acted as an influential adviser to civil-rights leaders. In the 1970s, he became a public advocate on behalf of gay
and lesbian
causes.
, Pennsylvania
. He was raised by his maternal grandparents, Janifer and Julia Rustin. Julia Rustin was a Quaker
, although she attended her husband's African Methodist Episcopal Church
. She was also a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP). NAACP leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois
and James Weldon Johnson
were frequent guests in the Rustin home. With these influences in his early life, in his youth Rustin campaigned against racially discriminatory Jim Crow laws
.
In 1932, Rustin entered Wilberforce University
, a historically black college (HBCU) in Ohio operated by the AME Church. As a student at Wilberforce, Rustin was active in a number of campus organizations, including the Omega Psi Phi
Fraternity. He left Wilberforce in 1936 before taking his final exams, and later attended Cheyney State Teachers College (now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania
).
After completing an activist training program conducted by the American Friends Service Committee
(AFSC), Rustin moved to Harlem in 1937 and began studying at City College of New York
. There he became involved in efforts to defend and free the Scottsboro Boys
, nine young black men in Alabama who were accused of raping two white women. He joined the Young Communist League
in 1936. Soon after coming to New York City, he became a member of Fifteenth Street Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
(Quakers).
Rustin was an accomplished tenor vocalist, which earned him admissions to both Wilberforce University and Cheyney State Teachers College with music scholarships. In 1939 he was in the chorus of a short-lived musical that starred Paul Robeson
. Blues singer Josh White
was also a cast member, and later invited Rustin to join his band, "Josh White and the Carolinians". This gave Rustin the opportunity to become a regular performer at the Café Society
nightclub
in Greenwich Village
, which widened his social and intellectual contacts.
(CPUSA) and its members were active in the civil rights movement
for African Americans. Following Stalin's "theory of nationalism", the CPUSA once favored the creation of a separate "nation" for negroes, to be located in the American Southeast. In 1941, after Germany
invaded the Soviet Union
, Joseph Stalin
ordered the CPUSA to abandon civil rights work and focus supporting U.S. entry into World War II
. Disillusioned, Rustin began working with members of the Socialist Party
of Norman Thomas
, particularly, A. Philip Randolph, the head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
; another socialist mentor was the pacifist A. J. Muste, leader of the Fellowship of Reconciliation
(FOR).
The three of them proposed a march on Washington
to protest racial discrimination in the armed forces
. Meeting with President Roosevelt in the Oval Office
, Randolph respectfully, politely, but firmly told President Roosevelt that Negroes would march in the capital unless desegregation would occur. The planned march was canceled after President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802
(the Fair Employment Act), which banned discrimination in defense industries and federal agencies.
Rustin traveled to California
to help protect the property of Japanese American
s, who had been imprisoned in internment camps. Impressed with Rustin's organizational skills, Muste appointed him as FOR's secretary for student and general affairs.
Rustin was also a pioneer in the movement to desegregate interstate bus travel. In 1942 he boarded a bus in Louisville
, bound for Nashville, and sat in the second row. A number of drivers asked him to move to the back, but Rustin refused. The bus was stopped by police 13 miles north of Nashville and Rustin was arrested. He was beaten and taken to the police station, but was released uncharged.
In 1942, Rustin assisted two other staffers, George Houser
and James L. Farmer, Jr., and activist Bernice Fisher
as they formed the Congress of Racial Equality
(CORE). Rustin was not a direct founder but was "an uncle of CORE," Farmer and Houser said later. CORE was conceived as a pacifist organization based on the writings of Henry David Thoreau
. It was modeled after Mohandas Gandhi's non-violent resistance against British rule in India
.
As declared pacifists
, Rustin, Houser, and other members of FOR and CORE were convicted of violating the Selective Service Act
. From 1944 to 1946, Rustin was imprisoned in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary
, where he organized protests against segregated dining facilities. During his incarceration, Rustin also organized FOR's Free India Committee. After his release from prison, he was frequently arrested for protesting against British
colonial rule in India
and Africa
.
Just before a trip to Africa while college secretary of the FOR, Rustin recorded a 10" LP for "Fellowship Records." He sang spirituals and Elizabethan songs, accompanied on the harpsichord
by Margaret Davison. [from liner notes, Fellowship Records 102]
in 1947. This was the first of the Freedom Rides to test the ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States
that banned racial discrimination in interstate travel (Irene Morgan
v. Commonwealth of Virginia). The NAACP opposed CORE's Gandhian
tactics. Participants in the Journey of Reconciliation were arrested several times. Arrested with Jewish activist Igal Roodenko
, Rustin served twenty-two days on a chain gang
in North Carolina
for violating Jim Crow laws regarding segregated seating on public transportation.
In 1948, Rustin traveled to India to learn techniques of nonviolent civil resistance
directly from the leaders of the Gandhian
movement. The conference had been organized before Gandhi's assassination earlier that year. Between 1947 and 1952, Rustin met with leaders of Ghana
's and Nigeria
's independence movements.
In 1951, he formed the Committee to Support South Africa
n Resistance, which later became the American Committee on Africa. In 1953, Rustin was arrested in Pasadena, California
for homosexual activity. Originally charged with vagrancy and lewd conduct, he pleaded guilty to a single, lesser charge of "sex perversion" (as consensual sodomy
was officially referred to in California then) and served 60 days in jail. This was the first time that his homosexuality
had come to public attention. He had been and remained candid about his sexuality, although homosexuality was still criminalized throughout the United States. After his conviction, he was fired from FOR. He became the executive secretary of the War Resisters League
.
Rustin served as an unidentified member of the American Friends Service Committee
's task force to write "Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence," published in 1955. This was one of the most influential and widely commented upon pacifist essays in the United States. Rustin had wanted to keep his participation quiet, as he believed that his known sexual orientation would be used by critics as an excuse to compromise the 71-page pamphlet when it was published. It analyzed the Cold War
and the American response to it and recommended non-violent solutions.
Rustin took leave from the War Resisters League
in 1956 to advise Martin Luther King Jr. on Gandhian tactics. King was organizing the public transportation boycott
in Montgomery, Alabama
known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott
. According to Rustin, "I think it's fair to say that Dr. King's view of non-violent tactics was almost non-existent when the boycott began. In other words, Dr. King was permitting himself and his children and his home to be protected by guns." Rustin convinced King to abandon the armed protection.
The following year, Rustin and King began organizing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC). Many African-American leaders were concerned that Rustin's sexual orientation and past Communist membership would undermine support for the civil rights movement. U.S. Representative Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
, who was a member of the SCLC's board, forced Rustin's resignation from the SCLC in 1960 by threatening to discuss Rustin's morals charge in Congress. Although Rustin was open about his sexual orientation and his conviction was a matter of public record, the events had not been discussed widely outside the civil rights leadership.
Despite shunning from some civil rights leaders, "[w]hen the moment came for an unprecedented mass gathering in Washington, Randolph pushed Rustin forward as the logical choice to organize it." A few weeks before the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
in August, 1963, Senator Strom Thurmond
railed against Rustin as a "Communist, draft-dodger, and homosexual," and had the entire Pasadena arrest file entered in the record. Thurmond also produced an FBI photograph of Rustin talking to King while King was bathing, to imply that there was a same-sex relationship between the two. Both men denied the allegation of an affair. .
Despite King's support, NAACP chairman Roy Wilkins
did not want Rustin to receive any public credit for his role in planning the march. Nevertheless, he did become well known. On September 6, 1963 Rustin and Randolph appeared on the cover of Life
magazine as "the leaders" of the March. After the March on Washington, Rustin organized the New York City School Boycott. When Rustin was invited to speak at the University of Virginia
in 1964, school administrators tried to ban him, out of fear that he would organize another school boycott there.
and 1965 Voting Rights Act
, Rustin advocated closer ties between the civil rights movement and the Democratic Party
and its base among the working class.
With Tom Kahn
, Rustin wrote an influential article called "From protest to politics" that analyzed the changing economy and its implications for American Negroes. Rustin wrote that the rise of automation would reduce the demand for low-skill high-paying jobs, which would jeopardize the position of the urban Negro working-class, particularly in the northern US. The needs of the Negro community demanded a shift in political strategy, where Negroes would need to strengthen their political alliance with mostly white unions and other organizations (churches, synagogues, etc.) to pursue a common economic agenda. It was time to move from protest to politics, wrote Rustin.
A particular danger facing the Negro community was the chimera of identity politics
, particularly the rise of "Black power
" which Rustin dismissed as a fantasy of middle-class Negroes that repeated the political and moral errors of previous black nationalists
, while alienating the white allies needed by the Negro community. Rustin's analysis of the economic problems of the Negro community was widely influential.
. Wilson documented an increase in inequality within the Black community, following educated Blacks moving into white suburbs and following the decrease of demand for low-skill labor, as industry declined in the Northern USA. Such economic problems were not being addressed by a civil rights leadership focused on "affirmative action
", a policy benefiting the truly advantaged within the Black community. Wilson's criticism of the neglect of working-class and poor African Americans by civil rights organizations led to his being mistaken for a conservative, despite his having identified himself as a Rustin style social democrat. Wilson has served on the advisory board of Social Democrats, USA.
He was the founder and became the Director of the A. Philip Randolph Institute
, which coordinated the AFL-CIO's work on civil rights and economic justice. He became a regular columnist for the AFL-CIO newspaper.
On the political side of the labor movement, Rustin increased his visibility as a leader of the American social democracy
. He became a national co-chairman of the Socialist Party of America in early 1972. In December 1972, when the Socialist Party changed its name to Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA) by a vote of 73:34, Rustin continued to serve as national co-chairman, along with Charles S. Zimmerman
of the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU). In his opening speech to the December 1972 Convention, Co-Chairman Bayard Rustin called for SDUSA to organize against the "reactionary policies of the Nixon Administration"; Rustin also criticized the "irresponsibility and élitism of the 'New Politics' liberals". In later years, Rustin served at the national chairman of SDUSA.
, Rustin and others gave critical support to U.S. military intervention in Vietnam
, while calling for a negotiated peace treaty and democratic elections. Rustin criticized the conduct of the war, particularly the bombing of civilians in North Vietnam.
During the early 1970s Rustin served on the board of trustees of the University of Notre Dame
.
and election monitor
for Freedom House
. He also testified on behalf of New York State's Gay
Rights Bill. In 1986, he gave a speech "The New Niggers Are Gays," in which he asserted,
. An obituary in the New York Times reported, "Looking back at his career, Mr. Rustin, a Quaker, once wrote: 'The principal factors which influenced my life are 1) nonviolent tactics; 2) constitutional means; 3) democratic procedures; 4) respect for human personality; 5) a belief that all people are one.'"
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
leader in social movement
Social movement
Social movements are a type of group action. They are large informal groupings of individuals or organizations focused on specific political or social issues, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change....
s for civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
, socialism
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
, pacifism and non-violence, and gay rights.
In the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation
Fellowship of Reconciliation
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is the name used by a number of religious nonviolent organizations, particularly in English-speaking countries...
(FOR), Rustin practiced nonviolence
Nonviolence
Nonviolence has two meanings. It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle It can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action Nonviolence has two (closely related) meanings. (1) It can refer, first, to a general...
. He was a leading activist of the early 1947–1955 civil-rights movement
American Civil Rights Movement (1896-1954)
The Civil Rights Movement in the United States was a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans...
, helping to initiate a 1947 Freedom Ride
Freedom ride
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated southern United States to test the United States Supreme Court decisions Boynton v. Virginia and Morgan v. Virginia...
to challenge with civil disobedience
Civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
racial segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
on interstate busing. He recognized Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
's leadership, and helped to organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC was closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr...
to strengthen King's leadership; Rustin promoted the philosophy of nonviolence and the practices of nonviolent resistance
Nonviolent resistance
Nonviolent resistance is the practice of achieving goals through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, and other methods, without using violence. It is largely synonymous with civil resistance...
, which he had observed while working with Gandhi's movement in India. Rustin became a leading strategist of the civil rights movement from 1955–1968. He was the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was the largest political rally for human rights in United States history and called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It took place in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr...
, which was headed by A. Philip Randolph, the leading African-American labor-union president and socialist. Rustin also influenced young activists, such as Tom Kahn
Tom Kahn
Tom David Kahn was an American social democrat known for his leadership in other organizations. He was an activist and influential strategist in the African-American civil-rights movement. He was a senior adviser and leader in the U.S. labor movement.Kahn was raised in New York City. At...
and Stokely Carmichael
Stokely Carmichael
Kwame Ture , also known as Stokely Carmichael, was a Trinidadian-American black activist active in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. He rose to prominence first as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and later as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party...
, in organizations like the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
(SNCC).
After the passage of the civil-rights legislation of 1964–1965, Rustin focused attention on the economic problems of working-class and unemployed African Americans, suggesting that the civil-rights movement had left its period of "protest" and had entered an era of "politics", in which the Black community had to ally with the labor movement. Rustin became the head of the AFL–CIO's A. Philip Randolph Institute, which promoted the integration of formerly all-white unions and promoted the unionization of African Americans. Rustin became an honorary chairperson of the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
in 1972, before it changed its name to Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA); Rustin acted as national chairman of SDUSA during the 1970s. During the 1970s and 1980s, Rustin served on many humanitarian missions, such as aiding refugees from Communist Vietnam and Cambodia. He was on a humanitarian mission in Haiti when he died in 1987.
Rustin was a gay man who had been arrested for homosexual
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
behavior early in his life. Because homosexuality was criminalized through the 1960s and stigmatized through the 1970s, Rustin's sexuality was criticized by some fellow pacifists and civil-rights leaders. From the 1950s through the 1970s, Rustin was attacked as a "pervert" or "immoral influence" by political opponents, both segregationists and Black power
Black Power
Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies. It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States...
militants. To avoid such attacks, Rustin served only rarely as a public spokesperson. He usually acted as an influential adviser to civil-rights leaders. In the 1970s, he became a public advocate on behalf of gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
and lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
causes.
Early life
Rustin was born in West ChesterWest Chester, Pennsylvania
The Borough of West Chester is the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 18,461 at the 2010 census.Valley Forge, the Brandywine Battlefield, Longwood Gardens, Marsh Creek State Park, and other historical attractions are near West Chester...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. He was raised by his maternal grandparents, Janifer and Julia Rustin. Julia Rustin was a Quaker
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
, although she attended her husband's African Methodist Episcopal Church
African Methodist Episcopal Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination based in the United States. It was founded by the Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the...
. She was also a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to...
(NAACP). NAACP leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois
W.E.B. Du Bois
William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was an American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist, Pan-Africanist, author, and editor. Born in Massachusetts, Du Bois attended Harvard, where he was the first African American to earn a doctorate...
and James Weldon Johnson
James Weldon Johnson
James Weldon Johnson was an American author, politician, diplomat, critic, journalist, poet, anthologist, educator, lawyer, songwriter, and early civil rights activist. Johnson is remembered best for his leadership within the NAACP, as well as for his writing, which includes novels, poems, and...
were frequent guests in the Rustin home. With these influences in his early life, in his youth Rustin campaigned against racially discriminatory Jim Crow laws
Jim Crow laws
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans...
.
In 1932, Rustin entered Wilberforce University
Wilberforce University
Wilberforce University is a private, coed, liberal arts historically black university located in Wilberforce, Ohio. Affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, it was the first college to be owned and operated by African Americans...
, a historically black college (HBCU) in Ohio operated by the AME Church. As a student at Wilberforce, Rustin was active in a number of campus organizations, including the Omega Psi Phi
Omega Psi Phi
Omega Psi Phi is a fraternity and is the first African-American national fraternal organization to be founded at a historically black college. Omega Psi Phi was founded on November 17, 1911, at Howard University in Washington, D.C.. The founders were three Howard University juniors, Edgar Amos...
Fraternity. He left Wilberforce in 1936 before taking his final exams, and later attended Cheyney State Teachers College (now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania
Cheyney University of Pennsylvania
Cheyney University of Pennsylvania is a public, co-educational historically black university that is a part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. Cheyney University has a campus that is located in the Cheyney community within Thornbury Township, Chester County and Thornbury...
).
After completing an activist training program conducted by the American Friends Service Committee
American Friends Service Committee
The American Friends Service Committee is a Religious Society of Friends affiliated organization which works for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world...
(AFSC), Rustin moved to Harlem in 1937 and began studying at City College of New York
City College of New York
The City College of the City University of New York is a senior college of the City University of New York , in New York City. It is also the oldest of the City University's twenty-three institutions of higher learning...
. There he became involved in efforts to defend and free the Scottsboro Boys
Scottsboro Boys
The Scottsboro Boys were nine black teenage boys accused of rape in Alabama in 1931. The landmark set of legal cases from this incident dealt with racism and the right to a fair trial...
, nine young black men in Alabama who were accused of raping two white women. He joined the Young Communist League
Young Communist League, USA
The Young Communist League USA is the fraternal youth organization of the Communist Party USA. Although the name of the group has changed a number of times over the years, it dates its lineage back to 1920, shortly after the establishment of the first communist parties in America.-Early years:The...
in 1936. Soon after coming to New York City, he became a member of Fifteenth Street Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
(Quakers).
Rustin was an accomplished tenor vocalist, which earned him admissions to both Wilberforce University and Cheyney State Teachers College with music scholarships. In 1939 he was in the chorus of a short-lived musical that starred Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
. Blues singer Josh White
Josh White
Joshua Daniel White , better known as Josh White, was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor, and civil rights activist. He also recorded under the names "Pinewood Tom" and "Tippy Barton" in the 1930s....
was also a cast member, and later invited Rustin to join his band, "Josh White and the Carolinians". This gave Rustin the opportunity to become a regular performer at the Café Society
Café Society
Café society was the collective description for the so-called "Beautiful People" and "Bright Young Things" who gathered in fashionable cafes and restaurants in New York, Paris, and London beginning in the late 19th century...
nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
in Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
, which widened his social and intellectual contacts.
Evolving affiliations
Following directions from the Soviet Union, the Communist Party USACommunist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
(CPUSA) and its members were active in the civil rights movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
for African Americans. Following Stalin's "theory of nationalism", the CPUSA once favored the creation of a separate "nation" for negroes, to be located in the American Southeast. In 1941, after Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
invaded the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
ordered the CPUSA to abandon civil rights work and focus supporting U.S. entry into World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Disillusioned, Rustin began working with members of the Socialist Party
Socialist Party USA
The Socialist Party USA is a multi-tendency democratic-socialist party in the United States. The party states that it is the rightful continuation and successor to the tradition of the Socialist Party of America, which had lasted from 1901 to 1972.The party is officially committed to left-wing...
of Norman Thomas
Norman Thomas
Norman Mattoon Thomas was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.-Early years:...
, particularly, A. Philip Randolph, the head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters was, in 1925, the first labor organization led by blacks to receive a charter in the American Federation of Labor . It merged in 1978 with the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks , now known as the Transportation Communications International Union.The...
; another socialist mentor was the pacifist A. J. Muste, leader of the Fellowship of Reconciliation
Fellowship of Reconciliation
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is the name used by a number of religious nonviolent organizations, particularly in English-speaking countries...
(FOR).
The three of them proposed a march on Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
to protest racial discrimination in the armed forces
Armed forces
The armed forces of a country are its government-sponsored defense, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their governing body, and to defend that body and the nation it represents from external aggressors. In some countries paramilitary...
. Meeting with President Roosevelt in the Oval Office
Oval Office
The Oval Office, located in the West Wing of the White House, is the official office of the President of the United States.The room features three large south-facing windows behind the president's desk, and a fireplace at the north end...
, Randolph respectfully, politely, but firmly told President Roosevelt that Negroes would march in the capital unless desegregation would occur. The planned march was canceled after President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802
Executive Order 8802
Executive Order 8802 was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 25, 1941, to prohibit racial discrimination in the national defense industry...
(the Fair Employment Act), which banned discrimination in defense industries and federal agencies.
Rustin traveled to California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
to help protect the property of Japanese American
Japanese American
are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...
s, who had been imprisoned in internment camps. Impressed with Rustin's organizational skills, Muste appointed him as FOR's secretary for student and general affairs.
Rustin was also a pioneer in the movement to desegregate interstate bus travel. In 1942 he boarded a bus in Louisville
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
, bound for Nashville, and sat in the second row. A number of drivers asked him to move to the back, but Rustin refused. The bus was stopped by police 13 miles north of Nashville and Rustin was arrested. He was beaten and taken to the police station, but was released uncharged.
In 1942, Rustin assisted two other staffers, George Houser
George Houser
George M. Houser is a Methodist minister, civil rights activist, and activist for the independence of African nations. He served on the staff of the Fellowship of Reconciliation . With James Farmer, and Bernice Fisher, he co-founded the Congress of Racial Equality in 1942 in Chicago...
and James L. Farmer, Jr., and activist Bernice Fisher
Bernice Fisher
Bernice Fisher was a civil rights activist and union organizer. She was one of the original founders of the Congress of Racial Equality...
as they formed the Congress of Racial Equality
Congress of Racial Equality
The Congress of Racial Equality or CORE was a U.S. civil rights organization that originally played a pivotal role for African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement...
(CORE). Rustin was not a direct founder but was "an uncle of CORE," Farmer and Houser said later. CORE was conceived as a pacifist organization based on the writings of Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist...
. It was modeled after Mohandas Gandhi's non-violent resistance against British rule in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
As declared pacifists
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
, Rustin, Houser, and other members of FOR and CORE were convicted of violating the Selective Service Act
Selective Training and Service Act of 1940
The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, also known as the Burke-Wadsworth Act, was passed by the Congress of the United States on September 17, 1940, becoming the first peacetime conscription in United States history when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law two days later...
. From 1944 to 1946, Rustin was imprisoned in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary
Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary
The United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg is a male inmate high security federal penitentiary and satellite minimum security prison camp housing some 1,000 and 500 respectively, just outside Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The Lewisburg Penitentiary was opened in 1932...
, where he organized protests against segregated dining facilities. During his incarceration, Rustin also organized FOR's Free India Committee. After his release from prison, he was frequently arrested for protesting against British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
colonial rule in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
.
Just before a trip to Africa while college secretary of the FOR, Rustin recorded a 10" LP for "Fellowship Records." He sang spirituals and Elizabethan songs, accompanied on the harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
by Margaret Davison. [from liner notes, Fellowship Records 102]
Influence on the Civil Rights Movement
Rustin and Houser organized the Journey of ReconciliationJourney of Reconciliation
The Journey of Reconciliation was a form of non-violent direct action to challenge segregation laws on interstate buses in the Southern United States....
in 1947. This was the first of the Freedom Rides to test the ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
that banned racial discrimination in interstate travel (Irene Morgan
Irene Morgan
Irene Morgan , later known as Irene Morgan Kirkaldy, was an important predecessor to Rosa Parks in the successful fight to overturn segregation laws in the United States...
v. Commonwealth of Virginia). The NAACP opposed CORE's Gandhian
Gandhism
Gandhism is the collection of inspirations, principles, beliefs and philosophy of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , who was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian Independence Movement....
tactics. Participants in the Journey of Reconciliation were arrested several times. Arrested with Jewish activist Igal Roodenko
Igal Roodenko
- Biography :Roodenko graduated from Townsend Harris High School in Manhattan, New York. He attended Cornell University from 1934 to 1938, where he received a degree in horticulture. Roodenko was a gay man, and a printer by trade....
, Rustin served twenty-two days on a chain gang
Chain gang
A chain gang is a group of prisoners chained together to perform menial or physically challenging work, such as mining or timber collecting, as a form of punishment. Such punishment might include building roads, digging ditches or chipping stone...
in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
for violating Jim Crow laws regarding segregated seating on public transportation.
In 1948, Rustin traveled to India to learn techniques of nonviolent civil resistance
Civil resistance
The term civil resistance, alongside the term nonviolent resistance, is used to describe political action that relies on the use of non-violent methods by civil groups to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and...
directly from the leaders of the Gandhian
Gandhism
Gandhism is the collection of inspirations, principles, beliefs and philosophy of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , who was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian Independence Movement....
movement. The conference had been organized before Gandhi's assassination earlier that year. Between 1947 and 1952, Rustin met with leaders of Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
's and Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
's independence movements.
In 1951, he formed the Committee to Support South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n Resistance, which later became the American Committee on Africa. In 1953, Rustin was arrested in Pasadena, California
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
for homosexual activity. Originally charged with vagrancy and lewd conduct, he pleaded guilty to a single, lesser charge of "sex perversion" (as consensual sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
was officially referred to in California then) and served 60 days in jail. This was the first time that his homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
had come to public attention. He had been and remained candid about his sexuality, although homosexuality was still criminalized throughout the United States. After his conviction, he was fired from FOR. He became the executive secretary of the War Resisters League
War Resisters League
The War Resisters League was formed in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I. It is a section of the London-based War Resisters' International.Many of the founders had been jailed during World War I for refusing military service...
.
Rustin served as an unidentified member of the American Friends Service Committee
American Friends Service Committee
The American Friends Service Committee is a Religious Society of Friends affiliated organization which works for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world...
's task force to write "Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence," published in 1955. This was one of the most influential and widely commented upon pacifist essays in the United States. Rustin had wanted to keep his participation quiet, as he believed that his known sexual orientation would be used by critics as an excuse to compromise the 71-page pamphlet when it was published. It analyzed the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
and the American response to it and recommended non-violent solutions.
Rustin took leave from the War Resisters League
War Resisters League
The War Resisters League was formed in 1923 by men and women who had opposed World War I. It is a section of the London-based War Resisters' International.Many of the founders had been jailed during World War I for refusing military service...
in 1956 to advise Martin Luther King Jr. on Gandhian tactics. King was organizing the public transportation boycott
Boycott
A boycott is an act of voluntarily abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person, organization, or country as an expression of protest, usually for political reasons...
in Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Montgomery Bus Boycott
The Montgomery Bus Boycott was a political and social protest campaign that started in 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, intended to oppose the city's policy of racial segregation on its public transit system. Many important figures in the civil rights movement were involved in the boycott,...
. According to Rustin, "I think it's fair to say that Dr. King's view of non-violent tactics was almost non-existent when the boycott began. In other words, Dr. King was permitting himself and his children and his home to be protected by guns." Rustin convinced King to abandon the armed protection.
The following year, Rustin and King began organizing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is an African-American civil rights organization. SCLC was closely associated with its first president, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr...
(SCLC). Many African-American leaders were concerned that Rustin's sexual orientation and past Communist membership would undermine support for the civil rights movement. U.S. Representative Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.
Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., was an American politician and pastor who represented Harlem, New York City, in the United States House of Representatives . He was the first person of African-American descent elected to Congress from New York and became a powerful national politician...
, who was a member of the SCLC's board, forced Rustin's resignation from the SCLC in 1960 by threatening to discuss Rustin's morals charge in Congress. Although Rustin was open about his sexual orientation and his conviction was a matter of public record, the events had not been discussed widely outside the civil rights leadership.
Despite shunning from some civil rights leaders, "[w]hen the moment came for an unprecedented mass gathering in Washington, Randolph pushed Rustin forward as the logical choice to organize it." A few weeks before the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was the largest political rally for human rights in United States history and called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It took place in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr...
in August, 1963, Senator Strom Thurmond
Strom Thurmond
James Strom Thurmond was an American politician who served as a United States Senator. He also ran for the Presidency of the United States in 1948 as the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party candidate, receiving 2.4% of the popular vote and 39 electoral votes...
railed against Rustin as a "Communist, draft-dodger, and homosexual," and had the entire Pasadena arrest file entered in the record. Thurmond also produced an FBI photograph of Rustin talking to King while King was bathing, to imply that there was a same-sex relationship between the two. Both men denied the allegation of an affair. .
Despite King's support, NAACP chairman Roy Wilkins
Roy Wilkins
Roy Wilkins was a prominent civil rights activist in the United States from the 1930s to the 1970s. Wilkins' most notable role was in his leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ....
did not want Rustin to receive any public credit for his role in planning the march. Nevertheless, he did become well known. On September 6, 1963 Rustin and Randolph appeared on the cover of Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
magazine as "the leaders" of the March. After the March on Washington, Rustin organized the New York City School Boycott. When Rustin was invited to speak at the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
in 1964, school administrators tried to ban him, out of fear that he would organize another school boycott there.
From Protest to Politics
After passage of the 1964 Civil Rights ActCivil Rights Act of 1964
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that outlawed major forms of discrimination against African Americans and women, including racial segregation...
and 1965 Voting Rights Act
Voting Rights Act
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of national legislation in the United States that outlawed discriminatory voting practices that had been responsible for the widespread disenfranchisement of African Americans in the U.S....
, Rustin advocated closer ties between the civil rights movement and the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
and its base among the working class.
With Tom Kahn
Tom Kahn
Tom David Kahn was an American social democrat known for his leadership in other organizations. He was an activist and influential strategist in the African-American civil-rights movement. He was a senior adviser and leader in the U.S. labor movement.Kahn was raised in New York City. At...
, Rustin wrote an influential article called "From protest to politics" that analyzed the changing economy and its implications for American Negroes. Rustin wrote that the rise of automation would reduce the demand for low-skill high-paying jobs, which would jeopardize the position of the urban Negro working-class, particularly in the northern US. The needs of the Negro community demanded a shift in political strategy, where Negroes would need to strengthen their political alliance with mostly white unions and other organizations (churches, synagogues, etc.) to pursue a common economic agenda. It was time to move from protest to politics, wrote Rustin.
A particular danger facing the Negro community was the chimera of identity politics
Identity politics
Identity politics are political arguments that focus upon the self interest and perspectives of self-identified social interest groups and ways in which people's politics may be shaped by aspects of their identity through race, class, religion, sexual orientation or traditional dominance...
, particularly the rise of "Black power
Black Power
Black Power is a political slogan and a name for various associated ideologies. It is used in the movement among people of Black African descent throughout the world, though primarily by African Americans in the United States...
" which Rustin dismissed as a fantasy of middle-class Negroes that repeated the political and moral errors of previous black nationalists
Black nationalism
Black nationalism advocates a racial definition of indigenous national identity, as opposed to multiculturalism. There are different indigenous nationalist philosophies but the principles of all African nationalist ideologies are unity, and self-determination or independence from European society...
, while alienating the white allies needed by the Negro community. Rustin's analysis of the economic problems of the Negro community was widely influential.
Influence on William Julius Wilson
Rustin's analysis was supported by the later research by William Julius WilsonWilliam Julius Wilson
William Julius Wilson is an American sociologist. He worked at the University of Chicago 1972-1996 before moving to Harvard....
. Wilson documented an increase in inequality within the Black community, following educated Blacks moving into white suburbs and following the decrease of demand for low-skill labor, as industry declined in the Northern USA. Such economic problems were not being addressed by a civil rights leadership focused on "affirmative action
Affirmative action
Affirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
", a policy benefiting the truly advantaged within the Black community. Wilson's criticism of the neglect of working-class and poor African Americans by civil rights organizations led to his being mistaken for a conservative, despite his having identified himself as a Rustin style social democrat. Wilson has served on the advisory board of Social Democrats, USA.
Labor movement: Unions and social democracy
Rustin increasingly worked to strengthen the labor movement, which he saw as the champion of empowerment for the Negro community and for economic justice for all Americans. He contributed to the labor movement's two sides, economic and political, through support of labor unions and social-democratic politics.He was the founder and became the Director of the A. Philip Randolph Institute
A. Philip Randolph Institute
The A. Philip Randolph Institute is an organization for African American trade unionists.-History:Following passage of the Voting Rights Act, APRI was co-founded in 1965 by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin...
, which coordinated the AFL-CIO's work on civil rights and economic justice. He became a regular columnist for the AFL-CIO newspaper.
On the political side of the labor movement, Rustin increased his visibility as a leader of the American social democracy
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
. He became a national co-chairman of the Socialist Party of America in early 1972. In December 1972, when the Socialist Party changed its name to Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA) by a vote of 73:34, Rustin continued to serve as national co-chairman, along with Charles S. Zimmerman
Charles S. Zimmerman
Charles Sasha Zimmerman was an American socialist activist and trade union leader, who was an associate of Jay Lovestone. Zimmerman had a career spanning five decades as an official of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union...
of the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU). In his opening speech to the December 1972 Convention, Co-Chairman Bayard Rustin called for SDUSA to organize against the "reactionary policies of the Nixon Administration"; Rustin also criticized the "irresponsibility and élitism of the 'New Politics' liberals". In later years, Rustin served at the national chairman of SDUSA.
Other activities
Like many liberals and socialists, Rustin supported President Lyndon Johnson's containment policy against communism, while making criticisms of the conduct of this policy. In particular, to maintain independent labor unions and political opposition in VietnamVietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, Rustin and others gave critical support to U.S. military intervention in Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, while calling for a negotiated peace treaty and democratic elections. Rustin criticized the conduct of the war, particularly the bombing of civilians in North Vietnam.
During the early 1970s Rustin served on the board of trustees of the University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
.
Human rights: Gay rights
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Rustin worked as a human rightsHuman rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
and election monitor
Election monitoring
Election monitoring is the observation of an election by one or more independent parties, typically from another country or a non-governmental organization , primarily to assess the conduct of an election process on the basis of national legislation and international standards. There are national...
for Freedom House
Freedom House
Freedom House is an international non-governmental organization based in Washington, D.C. that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights...
. He also testified on behalf of New York State's Gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
Rights Bill. In 1986, he gave a speech "The New Niggers Are Gays," in which he asserted,
Death and beliefs
Rustin died on August 24, 1987, of a perforated appendixVermiform appendix
The appendix is a blind-ended tube connected to the cecum , from which it develops embryologically. The cecum is a pouchlike structure of the colon...
. An obituary in the New York Times reported, "Looking back at his career, Mr. Rustin, a Quaker, once wrote: 'The principal factors which influenced my life are 1) nonviolent tactics; 2) constitutional means; 3) democratic procedures; 4) respect for human personality; 5) a belief that all people are one.'"
Legacy
Despite the fact that he played such an important role in the civil rights movement, Rustin "faded from the shortlist of well-known civil rights lions," in large part because of discomfort with his sexual orientation.- According to Daniel Richman, former clerk for United States Supreme Court justice Thurgood MarshallThurgood MarshallThurgood Marshall was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, serving from October 1967 until October 1991...
, Marshall's friendship with Rustin and Rustin's openness about his homosexuality played a significant role in Marshall's dissent from the court's decision upholding the constitutionality of state sodomy laws in the later overturnedLawrence v. TexasLawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 , is a landmark United States Supreme Court case. In the 6-3 ruling, the Court struck down the sodomy law in Texas and, by proxy, invalidated sodomy laws in the thirteen other states where they remained in existence, thereby making same-sex sexual activity legal in...
1986 case Bowers v. HardwickBowers v. HardwickBowers v. Hardwick, , is a United States Supreme Court decision that upheld, in a 5-4 ruling, the constitutionality of a Georgia sodomy law criminalizing oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults when applied to homosexuals. Seventeen years after Bowers v. Hardwick, the Supreme Court...
. - The Bayard Rustin Educational Complex located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan is named for him.
- Bayard Rustin High SchoolRustin High SchoolBayard Rustin High School is the third and newest high school of the West Chester Area School District in West Chester, Pennsylvania, named after civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, himself a West Chester native. Construction began in 2003 and the school opened for the 2006-2007 school year...
is located in his hometown of West Chester, Pennsylvania. - Bayard Rustin Library at the Affirmations Gay/Lesbian Community Center in Ferndale, MichiganFerndale, MichiganFerndale is adjacent to the cities of Detroit to the south, Oak Park to the west, Hazel Park to the east, Pleasant Ridge to the north, Royal Oak Township to the southwest, and Royal Oak to the north....
. - Bayard Rustin Social Justice Center in Conway, ArkansasConway, ArkansasConway is the county seat of Faulkner County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 58,908 at the 2010 census, making Conway the seventh most populous city in Arkansas. It is a principal city of the Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area which had...
. - Biographical feature of Bayard Rustin in the movie Out of the Past,
- In July 2007, with the permission of the Estate of Bayard Rustin, a group of San Francisco Bay Area African American LGBT community leaders formed the Bayard Rustin LGBT Coalition (BRC), to promote greater participation in the electoral process, advance civil and human rights issues, and promote the legacy of Mr. Rustin.
- Bayard Rustin Center for LGBTQA Activism, Awareness and Reconciliation at Guilford CollegeGuilford CollegeGuilford College, founded in 1837 by members of the Religious Society of Friends , is an independent college whose stated mission is to: provide a transformative, practical and excellent liberal arts education that produces critical thinkers in an inclusive, diverse environment, guided by Quaker...
. The center's vision and mission honor and continue the legacy of Bayard Rustin. Formerly the Queer and Allied Resource Center, the March 2011 rededication was with the permission of the Estate of Bayard Rustin and featured a keynote address by social justice activist Mandy Carter.
- A Pennsylvania State Historical Marker is placed at Lincoln and Montgomery Aves., West Chester, PA commemorating his accomplishments and is on the grounds at Henderson High School where he attended.
Publications
- Interracial primer New York, N.Y.: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1943
- Interracial workshop: progress report New York, N.Y.: Sponsored by Congress of Racial Equality and Fellowship of Reconciliation., 1947
- Journey of reconciliation: report New York : Fellowship of Reconciliation, Congress of Racial Equality, 1947
- We challenged Jim Crow! a report on the journey of reconciliation, April 9–23, 1947 New York : Fellowship of Reconciliation, Congress of Racial Equality, 1947
- "In apprehension how like a god!" Philadelphia: Young Friends Movement 1948
- The revolution in the South" Cambridge, Mass. : Peace Education Section, American Friends Service Committee, 1950s
- Report on Montgomery, Alabama New York: War Resisters League, 1956
- A report and action suggestions on non-violence in the South New York: War Resisters League, 1957
- Civil rights: the true frontier New York, N.Y.: Donald Press, 1963
- From protest to politics: the future of the civil rights movement New York: League for Industrial Democracy, 1965
- The city in crisis (introduction) New York: A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund, 1965
- "Black power" and coalition politics New York, American Jewish Committee 1966
- Which way? (with Daniel Patrick MoynihanDaniel Patrick MoynihanDaniel Patrick "Pat" Moynihan was an American politician and sociologist. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected to the United States Senate for New York in 1976, and was re-elected three times . He declined to run for re-election in 2000...
) New York : American Press, 1966 - The Watts "Manifesto" & the McCone report. New York, League for Industrial Democracy 1966
- Fear, frustration, backlash: the new crisis in civil rights New York, Jewish Labor Committee 1966
- The lessons of the long hot summer New York, American Jewish Committee 1967
- The Negro community: frustration politics, sociology and economics Detroit : UAW Citizenship-Legislative Department, 1967
- A way out of the exploding ghetto New York: League for Industrial Democracy, 1967
- The alienated: the young rebels today and why they're different Washington, D.C. : International Labor Press Association, 1967
- "Right to work" laws; a trap for America's minorities. New York: A. Phillip Randolph Institute 1967
- Civil rights: the movement re-examined (contributor) New York,A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund, 1967
- Separatism or integration, which way for America?: a dialogue (with Robert BrowneRobert BrowneRobert Browne was the founder of the Brownists, a common designation for early Separatists from the Church of England before 1620.-Biography:...
) New York,A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund, 1968 - The Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, an analysis New York, American Jewish Committee 1968
- The labor-Negro coalition, a new beginning [Washington? D.C. : American Federationist?, 1968
- The anatomy of frustration New York, Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, 1968
- Morals concerning minorities, mental health and identity. New York, A. Philip Randolph Institute, 1969
- Black studies: myths & realities (contributor) New York, A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund, 1969
- Conflict or coalition?: the civil rights struggle and the trade union movement today New York, A. Philip Randolph Institute, 1969
- Three essays New York, A. Philip Randolph Institute, 1969
- Black rage, White fear: the full employment answer : an address Washington, D.C. : Bricklayers, Masons & Plasterers International Union 1970
- A word to black students New York, A. Philip Randolph Institute, 1970
- The failure of black separatism New York, A. Philip Randolph Institute, 1970
- The blacks and the unions (contributor) New York, A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund, 1971
- Down the line; the collected writings of Bayard Rustin Chicago Quadrangle Books 1971
- Affirmative action in an economy of scarcity (with Norman HillNorman HillNorman Hill is an influential African-American administrator, activist and labor leader. He attended Haverford College in Pennsylvania and received a bachelor’s degree in 1956 in the field of sociology. He was one of the first African-Americans to graduate from Haverford. After college, Hill...
) New York, A. Philip Randolph Institute, 1974 - Seniority and racial progress (with Norman Hill) New York, A. Philip Randolph Institute, 1975
- Have we reached the end of the second reconstruction? Bloomington, Ind. : The Poynter Center, 1976
- Strategies for freedom: the changing patterns of Black protest New York, Columbia University Press 1976
- Africa, Soviet imperialism and the retreat of American power New York, Social Democrats, USA, 1978
- South Africa: is peaceful change possible? a report (contributor) New York, New York Friends Group, 1984
- Time on two crosses: the collected writings of Bayard Rustin San Francisco : Cleis PressCleis PressCleis Press is an independent publisher of books in the areas of sexuality, erotica, feminism, gay and lesbian studies, gender studies, fiction, and human rights. The press was founded in 1980 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, later moved to San Francisco, and is now based out of Berkeley, CA...
, 2003 - I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin's Life in Letters (City LightsCity Lights BookstoreCity Lights is an independent bookstore-publisher combination that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics. It also houses the nonprofit City Lights Foundation, which publishes selected titles related to San Francisco culture. It was founded in 1953 by poet Lawrence...
, 2012)
See also
- American Civil Rights Movement (1896-1954)American Civil Rights Movement (1896-1954)The Civil Rights Movement in the United States was a long, primarily nonviolent struggle to bring full civil rights and equality under the law to all Americans...
- African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)The African-American Civil Rights Movement refers to the movements in the United States aimed at outlawing racial discrimination against African Americans and restoring voting rights to them. This article covers the phase of the movement between 1955 and 1968, particularly in the South...
- Civil resistanceCivil resistanceThe term civil resistance, alongside the term nonviolent resistance, is used to describe political action that relies on the use of non-violent methods by civil groups to challenge a particular power, force, policy or regime. Civil resistance operates through appeals to the adversary, pressure and...
- Martin Luther King
- Nonviolent resistanceNonviolent resistanceNonviolent resistance is the practice of achieving goals through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, and other methods, without using violence. It is largely synonymous with civil resistance...
- Timeline of the American Civil Rights MovementTimeline of the American Civil Rights MovementThis is a timeline of African-American Civil Rights Movement.-Pre-17th century:1565*unknown – The colony of St...
External links
- Bayard Rustin – Who Is This Man?
- A selection of articles by Rustin
- FBI file on Bayard Rustin
- Bayard Rustin, Civil Rights Leader, from Quakerinfo.org
- Brother Outsider, a PBS documentary on Rustin
- Randall Kennedy, "From Protest to Patronage." The Nation
- Biography on Bayard Rustin High School's website