The Gay Quaker Civil Rights Organizer That History Forgot

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Transcript:

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I am a Quaker, and as everyone knows,

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Quakers for 300 years

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have been against participating in war.

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—Once described as the Socrates
of the Civil Rights Movement—

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—Bayard Rustin.

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—Bayard Rustin.

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—Please join me in welcoming

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Mr. Bayard Rustin.

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—Most of the public knew him

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as the organizer of the 1963

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March on Washington.

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—All of the newspapers
throughout the country

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had described the March

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as perhaps the most brilliant day

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in American history.

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—The deputy director of the march is named

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Bayard Rustin,

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the former member

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of the Young Communist League.

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Doctor King, do you feel confident

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that he is qualified
to lead this movement?

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—We have to establish the part of

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our constitutional way of life

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where the man is paid a decent wage,

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whether or not the society

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can put him to work.

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—Mr. Rustin is as committed

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to the ideals of democracy

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as anyone at this time.

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—Richard Nixon has identified you

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as one of his political enemies.

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—I’m delighted to be an enemy of Nixon!

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—With all the work you were doing in human rights

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you must’ve been feeling a sense,

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like you had this coming.

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—What did the movement
contribute to the nation?

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—Bayard’s hometown, in

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Westchester, Pennsylvania, was very close

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to the Mason-Dixon Line,

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so he was growing up in a town

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where there were Underground
Railroad stations, but there were also

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periodically marches by the Ku Klux Klan.

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Now, when I was born in Westchester,

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Pennsylvania, in 1912,

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there was not a single restaurant

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in this town

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that I could eat in.

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He did experience

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discrimination in the town.

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He was not able to
go to the local library

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with some of his white friends after school,

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he was not welcome in

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some of the homes of his white friends.

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He was a star student,

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graduated almost at the top of his class,

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but he was not offered any scholarships

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because they just weren’t offered

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to African-American students at that time.

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So he experienced discrimination

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on a firsthand basis.

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—So when did you first come out as gay,

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to yourself?

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—I recognized that

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I was gay when I was in high school.

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—He came out as a gay teenager

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to his grandmother,

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and she was fairly accepting of it.

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He started to run into problems

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when he went away to school;
he was asked to leave

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Cheyney State University because of his

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sexual orientation.

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Bayard Rustin was raised as a Quaker,

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largely by his grandmother.

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Julia Davis Rustin

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was a member of the Westchester
Friends Meeting.

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It was really through Julia that Bayard

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incorporated the values of Quakerism,
and those really were

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the values that motivated his activism

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throughout his life.

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—Rustin also relied on the Spirit,

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or the Inner Light,

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which is a notion
that is part of the Quaker theology,

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this idea that God is in everyone,

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it’s something that we experience
individually,

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and also in community.

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He drew on that, but also on Scripture.

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He would use the spiritual revelation

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to interpret the scriptures

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in a way that allowed him

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to challenge unjust laws.

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One of the unjust laws is conscription,

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forcing people to go to war,

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or forcing people to pay taxes

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that will then fund unjust wars.

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To justify why,

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whether it’s from a totalitarian

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or a democratic government,

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I will not follow the will of the state,

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I will follow the will of God, in terms of

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what is the right thing to do.

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—Tension developed between

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Bayard and some of his Quaker colleagues

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when he first came to New York

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and joined what was then

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called the New York Monthly Meeting,

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now the 15th Street Meeting.

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One of his first actions
was writing a letter

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to the meeting where he was

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questioning the appropriateness

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of offering hospitality to visiting service

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people; military personnel.

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Bayard at that time saw this

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as a contradiction

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to the Quaker peace testimony.

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He said the Quaker community

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at the time were complicit

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by not challenging that.

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Even if you were not intentionally

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funding a war,

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your tax dollars were.

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We can also take that route;

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don’t pay your taxes.

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This is something that he also

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thought about.

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Now, of course,

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there were Quakers who went to war,
there were Quakers

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who joined the service.

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There was a conscientious
objection status.

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They were offered to people

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who were members of what they called

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traditional peace churches. Bayard felt

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that to even accept that kind of a status

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was, complying with the Selective Service
system.

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Rustin’s

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hard stance on

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anti-war, anti-violence and anti-the draft

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led him to getting imprisoned

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when he

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refused to comply with

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the Selective Service law,

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refused induction into the military,

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and as a result served almost three years

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in the federal penitentiary.

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That experience

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also solidified his ecumenical faith,

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joining again the scriptures

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and the Gandhian nonviolence

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philosophy and tactics

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because he noticed
that there was segregation,

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even in the prisons!

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He engages in non-violent action

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to try to force change

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in the prison system.

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And then of course, that brings
other consequences.

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He gets put into isolation.

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He never stopped, basically.

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—Bayard wanted to see a world of justice,

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human equality—a lot of the values

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that grow out of the Quaker faith.

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—But he also recognized at the same time

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that he needed to bring

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his ecumenical perspective

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to the issue of economic rights.

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—So, when Bayard first

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came to New York he enrolled at City College.

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And City College was really sort

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of a hotbed of activism at that time.

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Bayard fell in

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with the Young Communist League;

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there were a lot of young
African-Americans.

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The Communist Party appealed to them

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because the Republican Party,

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the Democratic Party…

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they weren’t really paying much attention

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to racial injustice.

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So Bayard signed on with them for a while

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and worked as an organizer.

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—At home he said,

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economic rights is something that we need

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to pursue directly,

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and he pursued it by focusing

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on the oneness of the human family.

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You cannot have a family

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made up of unequal members.

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—We now know that you cannot get freedom

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for Negroes by marching in the street.

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Period.

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You cannot possibly

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get a job for Negroes in a society where

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millions of white people are unemployed.

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By asking for your share of that cake,

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white people do not get their share of it.

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What we have to do is to

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say, that cake no longer is a good cake,

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and get a new cake,

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in which

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the first, fundamental objective would be:

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we must separate pay from work.

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—How do we deal with a capitalist system

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exploiting everyone across the board?

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—The Young Communist League, they,

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of course, were opposed to World War Two.

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But when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union,

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the Communist Party reversed its position.

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Bayard felt that this was hypocritical.

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So he resigned later on, and became close

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to a gentleman named Michael Harrington.

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And Mike and Bayard became

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associated. They had their political differences

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in the late 60s, early 70s;

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Michael went off to form

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the Democratic Socialists

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of America, the party that we know now,

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and Bayard formed the Social Democrats USA.

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So Bayard remained, a democratic socialist

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throughout his…throughout his life.

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Bayard was always integrationist.

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He was part of that element

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of the African-American struggle;

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he was never a separatist in the sense

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that people like Malcolm X were advocating.

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—You have brought us here
and stripped us

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of everything we once had.

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You’ve stripped us of our culture.

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You stripped us of our language.

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You’ve cut off our roots, all our ties

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that we once had with our own

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kind in the East.

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Then you point the finger of scorn at us

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and tell the world that we’re not ready for freedom.

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Our only hope

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is not integration with a doomed society,

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but complete separation

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from a doomed society.

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—Rustin went back to the idea

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that there’s always hope.

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In a particular system
that may be corrupt,

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everyone should be equal,
and the way to fix

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it is to try to reform it.

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—This democratization

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and socialization the Negro cannot do alone.

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He can contribute vastly toward it,

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and any movement

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which begins by blocking out the active cooperation

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of the best minds,

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many of which are white as well as black,

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as to the nature of the new society,

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we need to have here,

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the process of socialization,

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which we need to have here, is

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unrealistic and fighting a—

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—He wanted the

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United States to live up

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to the promises that were made

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in the Declaration of Independence

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and the Constitution.

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And so he believed in

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becoming part of the political system.

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And for him, that was largely

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through the labor movement.

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got involved with Philip Randolph

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who was the head

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of the first African-American labor
unions.

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at that time really the most important

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black leader in the country.

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He was called the most dangerous Negro

267
00:09:44,984 –> 00:09:46,586
in America through who?

268
00:09:46,736 –> 00:09:50,006
Randolph Rustin was able to integrate

269
00:09:50,323 –> 00:09:52,725
a lot of his ideals in terms of engaging.

270
00:09:52,725 –> 00:09:54,927
Issues of inequality directly.

271
00:09:55,061 –> 00:09:56,529
through the threat of

272
00:09:56,529 –> 00:09:58,214
bringing masses of people

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00:09:58,281 –> 00:10:00,650
to, a protest or location,

274
00:10:00,650 –> 00:10:02,018
so that politicians,

275
00:10:02,018 –> 00:10:03,486
elected officials can see that

276
00:10:03,486 –> 00:10:04,754
the people have

277
00:10:05,338 –> 00:10:06,739
a different set of tools,

278
00:10:06,989 –> 00:10:08,507
not just the ballot box.

279
00:10:08,824 –> 00:10:09,825
people think about

280
00:10:09,825 –> 00:10:12,244
being nonviolent
And these kinds of strategies, you

281
00:10:12,295 –> 00:10:14,497
he also was not a pushover

282
00:10:14,580 –> 00:10:15,781
he was someone

283
00:10:15,781 –> 00:10:17,550
who was very radical at the time.

284
00:10:18,084 –> 00:10:20,303
Those people who think

285
00:10:20,886 –> 00:10:23,973
that we can use guns and knives

286
00:10:24,423 –> 00:10:26,726
against tanks and bazookas.

287
00:10:27,393 –> 00:10:29,278
They are the ignorant ones.

288
00:10:29,478 –> 00:10:30,579
radical in that sense

289
00:10:30,579 –> 00:10:32,598
that he used the old tactics

290
00:10:32,598 –> 00:10:33,799
Putting your body in the middle

291
00:10:33,799 –> 00:10:35,701
the engine to make it not work.

292
00:10:36,018 –> 00:10:39,939
Our power is in our ability to make

293
00:10:40,072 –> 00:10:42,408
things unworkable.

294
00:10:44,327 –> 00:10:47,296
The only weapon we have is our bodies,

295
00:10:48,080 –> 00:10:50,983
and we need to tuck them in places.

296
00:10:51,651 –> 00:10:53,836
So wheels don’t turn.

297
00:10:54,837 –> 00:10:56,472
He also went to work for the

298
00:10:56,656 –> 00:10:59,258
for the Fellowship of Reconciliation,

299
00:10:59,892 –> 00:11:01,494
the social reconciliation.

300
00:11:02,228 –> 00:11:03,913
We did the journey to the South.

301
00:11:04,130 –> 00:11:06,615
taking a bus full of people he himself

302
00:11:06,615 –> 00:11:08,117
and 15 other activists

303
00:11:08,300 –> 00:11:10,302
trying to desegregate South.

304
00:11:10,302 –> 00:11:11,520
And terms of transportation

305
00:11:11,837 –> 00:11:13,706
and he was taken out of the busses
and beaten.

306
00:11:14,256 –> 00:11:16,575
the way that philosophy is used
and applied

307
00:11:16,575 –> 00:11:18,627
is this idea that you have to bring out

308
00:11:18,627 –> 00:11:21,313
the brutality of the other, It was

309
00:11:21,313 –> 00:11:23,916
when the great majority of Americans

310
00:11:23,916 –> 00:11:25,901
saw the cattle prods

311
00:11:26,085 –> 00:11:27,803
and the bombing of the churches.

312
00:11:27,820 –> 00:11:29,972
The brutality of the South

313
00:11:31,691 –> 00:11:33,576
did more to help our cause

314
00:11:33,843 –> 00:11:35,044
than anything else.

315
00:11:35,161 –> 00:11:37,279
Use your body to get others

316
00:11:37,279 –> 00:11:39,181
to shoulder the real selves,

317
00:11:39,732 –> 00:11:42,134
The significance of nonviolence is

318
00:11:42,334 –> 00:11:44,804
that finally, one depends

319
00:11:44,804 –> 00:11:47,022
upon his body and his spirit.

320
00:11:47,339 –> 00:11:48,424
The man who believes in

321
00:11:48,424 –> 00:11:50,042
nonviolence is prepared

322
00:11:50,042 –> 00:11:52,712
to be harmed, to be crushed,

323
00:11:53,429 –> 00:11:55,081
but he will never crush others.

324
00:11:55,664 –> 00:11:57,800
You know, one thing is talking about

325
00:11:58,501 –> 00:12:01,370
indirect nonviolent action and living it

326
00:12:02,138 –> 00:12:04,140
They called it the March on Washington

327
00:12:04,140 –> 00:12:05,441
for Jobs and Freedom.

328
00:12:05,891 –> 00:12:08,594
If people know him at all, it’s largely

329
00:12:08,711 –> 00:12:11,263
because he was the chief organizer

330
00:12:11,614 –> 00:12:14,650
of the 1960 3rd March on Washington

331
00:12:14,650 –> 00:12:16,085
They came from all over

332
00:12:16,085 –> 00:12:17,436
America, demonstrating

333
00:12:17,436 –> 00:12:19,839
for a full and speedy
program of civil rights.

334
00:12:22,742 –> 00:12:25,861
All of
the demands underline the word now.

335
00:12:26,078 –> 00:12:27,096
They hope to impress

336
00:12:27,096 –> 00:12:28,464
the fence sitters and the nation,

337
00:12:28,481 –> 00:12:29,999
watching it all on television.

338
00:12:30,182 –> 00:12:32,935
Piercing
the armor of apathy could bring the Negro

339
00:12:32,935 –> 00:12:34,487
his greatest—

340
00:12:34,487 –> 00:12:36,906
—The Negro cause is becoming a general and universal cause.

341
00:12:37,123 –> 00:12:39,091
—This march will go down

342
00:12:39,091 –> 00:12:43,062
as one of the greatest,
if not the greatest,

343
00:12:43,212 –> 00:12:46,565
demonstrations
for freedom and human dignity

344
00:12:47,349 –> 00:12:49,869
ever held in the United States.

345
00:12:50,136 –> 00:12:51,504
—I have certain skills.

346
00:12:51,754 –> 00:12:53,773
Good at analyzing problems.

347
00:12:53,789 –> 00:12:56,192
Good in planning and executing.

348
00:12:56,459 –> 00:12:58,160
I put on the March of Washington

349
00:12:58,160 –> 00:12:59,695
for all the civil rights leaders

350
00:12:59,695 –> 00:13:01,013
because they asked me to.

351
00:13:01,630 –> 00:13:03,599
—Gathered this morning on the broad

352
00:13:03,599 –> 00:13:05,534
lawns around the Washington Monument.

353
00:13:05,885 –> 00:13:07,136
—I was terrified that

354
00:13:07,136 –> 00:13:08,487
people weren’t going to show up.

355
00:13:08,788 –> 00:13:10,856
—Momentum for the march began slowly.

356
00:13:11,307 –> 00:13:12,208
By 11:30 a.m.,

357
00:13:12,208 –> 00:13:15,211
a mounting tide was walking down

358
00:13:15,211 –> 00:13:17,196
the wide avenue named in honor

359
00:13:17,196 –> 00:13:19,081
of the Constitution of the country.

360
00:13:19,398 –> 00:13:20,866
—We had expected the marchers

361
00:13:20,866 –> 00:13:22,668
to just about now begin.

362
00:13:22,852 –> 00:13:25,004
However, some 15 minutes ago, the

363
00:13:25,087 –> 00:13:26,405
march got underway.

364
00:13:27,556 –> 00:13:28,757
I’m pleased to report to you

365
00:13:29,775 –> 00:13:31,243
that the official count

366
00:13:32,111 –> 00:13:34,063
is that we have over—

367
00:13:35,548 –> 00:13:37,199
—200,000 of them came

368
00:13:37,199 –> 00:13:38,400
to Washington this morning.

369
00:13:41,287 –> 00:13:44,173
Some drove private automobiles 50 miles.

370
00:13:44,190 –> 00:13:46,525
All now walk to the memorial site

371
00:13:46,525 –> 00:13:48,744
preserved in honor of Abraham Lincoln.

372
00:13:48,928 –> 00:13:50,346
—The greatest assembly for one

373
00:13:50,346 –> 00:13:52,748
cause this capital has ever seen.

374
00:15:29,178 –> 00:15:31,430
—Over time, he became

375
00:15:32,014 –> 00:15:34,033
a more political animal.

376
00:15:35,084 –> 00:15:38,203
—We were moving from a period of protest

377
00:15:38,587 –> 00:15:41,490
to one of political responsibility.

378
00:15:42,274 –> 00:15:43,542
—He grew into someone who saw,

379
00:15:43,959 –> 00:15:45,894
if you’re going to live in a democracy,

380
00:15:46,412 –> 00:15:48,297
you were going to have to engage,
politically.

381
00:15:48,764 –> 00:15:52,401
—It is much too easy to take a position

382
00:15:52,885 –> 00:15:53,836
which simply says

383
00:15:53,836 –> 00:15:55,754
both political parties stink.

384
00:15:57,706 –> 00:15:58,907
They do!

385
00:16:00,059 –> 00:16:01,527
But that is not the point.

386
00:16:02,394 –> 00:16:05,130
—Instead of marching on the courthouse

387
00:16:05,447 –> 00:16:06,999
or the restaurant or the theater,

388
00:16:07,016 –> 00:16:09,284
we now had to march to the ballot box.

389
00:16:11,086 –> 00:16:14,206
—Well, I met Bayard in April of 1977,

390
00:16:14,640 –> 00:16:16,775
quite by chance, in New York City.

391
00:16:17,142 –> 00:16:18,177
I was on a corner

392
00:16:18,177 –> 00:16:19,712
waiting for the light to change,

393
00:16:19,712 –> 00:16:23,465
and Bayard just happened to be beside me

394
00:16:23,532 –> 00:16:24,750
suddenly, and we…

395
00:16:24,750 –> 00:16:26,285
…it was an electric moment, I think,

396
00:16:26,285 –> 00:16:27,486
in both of our lives.

397
00:16:27,920 –> 00:16:29,738
I pretty much went to work for him

398
00:16:29,738 –> 00:16:32,341
full time as one of Bayard’s assistants.

399
00:16:32,858 –> 00:16:35,194
Bayard Rustin was one of my heroes.

400
00:16:35,694 –> 00:16:37,046
Getting a chance to meet him

401
00:16:37,046 –> 00:16:40,165
and then to become in a relationship
with him,

402
00:16:40,165 –> 00:16:41,867
and to work with him was…y’know,

403
00:16:41,867 –> 00:16:43,252
we were together for ten years,

404
00:16:43,252 –> 00:16:45,054
but I can tell you it moved very quickly.

405
00:16:46,505 –> 00:16:47,523
—Most of the public knew

406
00:16:47,523 –> 00:16:49,942
him as the organizer of the 1963

407
00:16:49,942 –> 00:16:51,143
March on Washington.

408
00:16:51,343 –> 00:16:53,278
I’d like us to remember Bayard Rustin.

409
00:16:53,295 –> 00:16:54,663
—Civil rights leader Bayard Rustin

410
00:16:54,663 –> 00:16:56,582
died last night here in New York.

411
00:16:56,849 –> 00:16:58,050
—Losing Bayard…

412
00:17:00,986 –> 00:17:02,921
….was…tragic.

413
00:17:03,922 –> 00:17:05,224
I’m so grateful

414
00:17:06,542 –> 00:17:09,912
that over the last 2 or 3 decades,

415
00:17:10,329 –> 00:17:12,965
y’know, Bayard’s name has been lifted up

416
00:17:12,965 –> 00:17:14,333
and become more

417
00:17:14,333 –> 00:17:16,368
part of the public consciousness.

418
00:17:16,852 –> 00:17:19,571
when I think of Bayard Rustin’s legacy,

419
00:17:20,255 –> 00:17:21,457
I would say,

420
00:17:21,940 –> 00:17:23,742
a commitment to human rights,

421
00:17:24,059 –> 00:17:26,412
a commitment to democratic processes,

422
00:17:26,729 –> 00:17:29,531
and not walking away from the struggle.

423
00:17:30,099 –> 00:17:30,833
To keep fighting.

424
00:17:30,833 –> 00:17:32,901
And I think that we’ve been through
difficult times

425
00:17:32,901 –> 00:17:34,136
in the country before,

426
00:17:34,770 –> 00:17:36,355
and I don’t think we should give up

427
00:17:36,355 –> 00:17:38,157
and walk away from the fight.

428
00:17:39,274 –> 00:17:40,793
Final question really, which is,

429
00:17:40,793 –> 00:17:42,428
what did the movement contribute

430
00:17:43,378 –> 00:17:44,580
to the nation?

431
00:17:45,864 –> 00:17:46,565
I think the

432
00:17:46,565 –> 00:17:48,934
movement contributed to this nation

433
00:17:48,934 –> 00:17:50,135
a sense

434
00:17:51,653 –> 00:17:53,489
of universal freedom.

435
00:17:53,972 –> 00:17:56,458
And as surely as we were able

436
00:17:56,458 –> 00:17:59,161
to bring about the Civil Rights Act,

437
00:17:59,545 –> 00:18:02,247
the Voting Rights Act, the Education Act,

438
00:18:02,664 –> 00:18:03,866
and the Housing Act,

439
00:18:04,349 –> 00:18:06,535
so is it possible for all of us now

440
00:18:06,535 –> 00:18:09,088
to combine our forces and a coalition

441
00:18:09,605 –> 00:18:10,372
to bring about

442
00:18:10,372 –> 00:18:12,357
the one thing that will bring peace

443
00:18:13,108 –> 00:18:15,127
internally to the United States,

444
00:18:15,594 –> 00:18:18,547
and that is that any man who wants a job,

445
00:18:19,198 –> 00:18:21,116
or any woman who wants a job,

446
00:18:21,817 –> 00:18:24,052
shall not be left unemployed.

Discussion Question:

• What can we learn from Bayard Rustin? How must our strategies evolve to meet the current moment?

The views expressed in this video are of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Friends Journal or its collaborators.