“I believe in
social dislocation and creative trouble.” –
Bayard Rustin (1912-1987)
During LGBT Pride Month and
every other time of the year, let us praise
Bayard Rustin. Rustin was an adviser to Dr.
Martin Luther King, an activist and leader who
organized the 1963 March on Washington, and
left an indelible mark on the Civil Rights
Movement. And because he was an openly gay
man, he never received his just due, too often
pushed to the sidelines of our historical
memory.
Committed to peace, and a
stalwart antiwar activist, Rustin said his
political beliefs were a result of his Quaker
upbringing instilled by the
grandparents who raised him. The man who said
“We need, in every community, a group of angelic
troublemakers” was born
in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and attended
Wilberforce University and Cheyney State
Teachers College. He moved to New York in
the 1930s and studied at City College.
Rustin resisted the military
draft in 1943 based on his religion. “I am a
Quaker. And as everyone knows, Quakers, for
300 years, have, on conscientious ground, been
against participating in war. I was sentenced
to three years in federal prison because I
could not religiously and conscientiously
accept killing my fellow man,” he
said. The proponent of nonviolence
who introduced King to Gandhi, Rustin believed
that while he should obey the law, he was
compelled to follow the will of God when the
will of the state conflicted with God.
A Black labor organizer ahead of
his time, Bayard Rustin understood the crucial
link between, racial
and economic justice, something which we take for
granted today. For example, among his mentors
was A. Philip Randolph of the Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters. Rustin was also involved
with Dr. King in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of
1955 and 1956. Further, it is worth noting the
iconic 1963 March on Washington was known as
the “March for Jobs and
Freedom” - as Rustin realized Black
people would not find freedom and racial
equality under a sluggish economy with no good
jobs.
In addition, Rustin appreciated
intersectionality before the term existed, and
worked on a variety of civil and human rights
causes during his lifetime. After all, he
understood that no
one is safe from intolerance as long
as some people are still subjected to such
treatment. While he was instrumental in
forming King’s Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, some civil rights leaders did not
appreciate his presence, and wanted
King to fire him because he was a gay man.
In the age of Black Lives Matter
- when so much is thrown at the Black
community and it is easy for activists to give
up hope, burn out or become overwhelmed - we
should remember Rustin’s plea that we never
allowinjustice
to destroy us, even as we let injustice
enrage us.
Bayard Rustin once said: “The real radical is that
person who has a vision of equality and is
willing to do those things that will bring
reality closer to that vision.” Rustin had
that vision matched with action, which made us
better off for it.
