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Time on Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin
In 1956 Bayard Rustin taught Martin Luther King Jr. strategies of nonviolence during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, thereby launching the civil rights movement. Widely acclaimed as a founding father of modern black protest, Rustin reached international notoriety in 1963 as the openly gay organizer of the March on Washington.Long before the March on Washington, Rustin's leadership placed him at the vanguard of social protest. His gay identity, however, became a point of contention with the movement, with the controversy embroiling even King himself.Time on Two Crosses offers an insider's view of many of the defining political moments of our time. From Gandhi's impact on African Americans, white supremacists in Congress, and the assassination of Malcolm X to Rustin's never-before-published essays on Louis Farrakhan, affirmative action, and the call for gay rights, Time on Two Crosses chronicles five decades of Rustin's commitment to justice and equality.
424 pages, Paperback
First published July 10, 2003
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About the author
Bayard Rustin
37 books45 followersAmerican civil rights leader and pacifist Bayard Rustin organized the march on Washington in 1963.
Bayard Rustin, an African moved for socialism, nonviolence, and gay.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayard_...
Bayard Rustin, an African moved for socialism, nonviolence, and gay.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayard_...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
November 12, 2017
Rustin has intrigued me since I read Parting the Waters in college. He was a core ally of King, who valued him enormously as an organizer and strategist, but also acknowledged him a liability because he was an out gay man with a history of Communism. So, an interesting fellow in his own right, and one timely to reflect on in our present intersectional and ideological moment.
The best essays here show why King, Randolph, and others admired Rustin. His strategic intelligence illuminates topics as varied as the postwar Democratic Party, Black studies in college curricula, and the internal politics of the first Black Zimbabwean government. The final section left me wanting to learn more about the immediate postcolonial processes of west and central Africa, always a good sign. I would provisionally shelve Rustin with Baldwin as a humanist, democrat, and iconoclast. They are in some ways counterparts: an artist on the one hand and a practical organizer on the other.
There are reasons this volume sat on my shelf for a solid decade between my first glancing at it and ultimately reading it all. The early chapters especially are very slow, as Rustin finds his voice and his distinct point of view. He is most incisive in the '70s, when he is often pushing back against post-civil rights cultural and ideological currents he finds antidemocratic and self-defeating, but when he is also (as his critique suggests) farther from the action.
I'd recommend the following essays especially:
"From Protest to Politics: The Future of the Civil Rights Movement" (1964)
"Reflections on the Death of MLK" (1968)
"The Failure of Black Separatism" (1970)
"The Blacks and the Unions" (1971)
"Eldridge Cleaver and the Democratic Idea" (1976)
"The War against Zimbabwe" (1979)
The best essays here show why King, Randolph, and others admired Rustin. His strategic intelligence illuminates topics as varied as the postwar Democratic Party, Black studies in college curricula, and the internal politics of the first Black Zimbabwean government. The final section left me wanting to learn more about the immediate postcolonial processes of west and central Africa, always a good sign. I would provisionally shelve Rustin with Baldwin as a humanist, democrat, and iconoclast. They are in some ways counterparts: an artist on the one hand and a practical organizer on the other.
There are reasons this volume sat on my shelf for a solid decade between my first glancing at it and ultimately reading it all. The early chapters especially are very slow, as Rustin finds his voice and his distinct point of view. He is most incisive in the '70s, when he is often pushing back against post-civil rights cultural and ideological currents he finds antidemocratic and self-defeating, but when he is also (as his critique suggests) farther from the action.
I'd recommend the following essays especially:
"From Protest to Politics: The Future of the Civil Rights Movement" (1964)
"Reflections on the Death of MLK" (1968)
"The Failure of Black Separatism" (1970)
"The Blacks and the Unions" (1971)
"Eldridge Cleaver and the Democratic Idea" (1976)
"The War against Zimbabwe" (1979)
April 11, 2021
In 2013, Barack Obama posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to civil and human rights advocate, Bayard Rustin.
Bayard Rustin was an unyielding activist for civil rights dignity, and equality for all. As an advisor to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he promoted nonviolent resistance, participated in one of the first Freedom Rides, organized the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and fought tirelessly for marginalized communities at home and abroad. As an openly gay African American, Mr. Rustin stood at the intersection of several of the fights for equal rights.This is a collection of Rustin's writings from the 1940s through the 1980s. Personal, thought-provoking, absorbing perspectives; I learned a great deal about the man and what it means to have the the courage of your convictions. I was fascinated by Rustin's account of testing integration on interstate bus and train travel in 1946 and his continuing faith in the strategy of non-violence.
February 23, 2016
In celebration of black history month.
The proof that one believes is in action. — Bayard Rustin
The best way to destroy a culture is to deny, suppress, or appropriate that people’s history. A culture without its art, without its myths, without its heroes will soon wither and die. For millennia indigenous peoples all over the world have suffered this kind of cultural rape at the hands of more powerful invaders. In America, slavery and segregation did its worst for African culture. And, in a rather different way, homophobia robbed LGBT people of their sense of self.
Do you know who Bayard Rustin is? I’m gonna guess not. That’s no surprise really, because his life exemplifies the impact that both segregation and homophobia has had on our culture. Despite being pivotal to in the struggle for civil and sexual rights for well over 50 years, he is all but forgotten now. His memory has been whitewashed, if not totally wiped out, and our culture is the poorer because of it. But thanks to Time On Two Crosses this American patriot is reinstated to his rightful place in the American pantheon.
Time On Two Crosses showcases the extraordinary career of this black, gay civil rights pioneer. The book combines classic texts ranging in topic from Gandhi's impact on African Americans, white supremacists in congress, the antiwar movement, and the assassination of Malcolm X, with never-before published selections on the call for gay rights, Louis Farrakhan, affirmative action, AIDS, and women's rights.
Bayard Rustin was a key civil rights strategist and humanitarian whose staunch advocacy of nonviolent resistance shaped the course of social protests from the 1950’s through the close of the twentieth century. And he was also openly gay at a time when that simply didn’t happen, especially among people of color.
Perhaps because of his unique position at the crux of the struggle for civil rights and sexual rights, Rustin insisted on the interconnectedness of all human rights and justice movements. He focuses not only on overturning racism and prejudice but also the systemic causes of injustice and disparity in the US and around the world. And his message on many issues is as relevant today as it was in his lifetime. He writes of himself:
“I am Bayard Rustin, Chairman of the Randolph Institute and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, which is composed of over 150 national groups dedicated to human rights for all. As one who has been active in the struggle to extend democracy to all Americans for over fifty years I am opposed to any attempt to amend the recently enacted law banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
I have been arrested twenty-four times in the struggle for civil and human rights. My first arrest was in 1928 merely for distributing leaflets on behalf of Al Smith’s candidacy for President in a climate of anti-Catholic hysteria. Since that time I have fought against religious intolerance, political harassment, and racism both here and abroad. I have fought against untouchability in India, against tribalism in Africa, and have sought to ensure that refugees coming to our shores are not subject to the same types of bigotry and intolerance from which they fled. As a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council I have fought antisemitism not only in the United States but around the world.”
But Rustin’s sexual openness and his controversial political positions came at a great personal cost. He wound up behind bars for practicing his nonviolent Quaker faith (from 1944 to 1946 in a Pennsylvania prison for conscientiously objecting to serving in World War II) and for practicing homosexuality (60 days in a California jail for “sex perversion” in 1953). And his many achievements — like pioneering one of the first Freedom Rides, refusing to give up his seat on a segregated bus in 1942, more than a dozen years before Rosa Parks did, and helping found the Southern Christian Leadership Coalition to support the efforts of a then young, largely unknown minister named Martin Luther King Jr. — often were tainted under the threat of exposure for his unpopular behavior and criminal convictions.
Bayard Rustin introduced Martin Luther King, Jr. to the precepts of nonviolence during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, thereby launching the birth of the Civil Rights Movement in 1955. When that movement needed a man who could get things done, even his detractors acknowledged he was the best organizer in the country. He was the man who was able to turn out 200,000 people on the Capitol Mall in an orderly fashion when no one else had ever done such a thing. He singlehandedly created the blueprint for the modern American mass political rally. The 1963 March on Washington was the pinnacle of his notoriety.
Few African Americans engaged in as broad a protest agenda as did Rustin; fewer still enjoyed his breadth of influence in virtually every political sector, working with world leaders like Kwame Nkrumah, President Lyndon Johnson, and Golda Meir. Yet, for all his influence and all his tireless efforts, Rustin remained an outsider in black civil rights circles because they refused to accept his homosexuality, which remained a point of contention among black church leaders, a controversy that sometimes even embroiled Dr. King himself.
The very people who he was fighting for shunned him. He was indeed the proverbial prophet “not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house”. (Mark 6:4)
For example, in 1960, Rustin and MLK were preparing to lead a protest of African Americans outside the Democratic National Convention. This would have deeply embarrassed the leading elected black politician of the day, Rep. Adam Clayton Powell. Powell threatened to spread a rumor that Rustin was having a sexual relationship with King. King canceled the protest, and Rustin resigned from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization he helped found. Bayard Rustin felt that his homosexuality, which he never tried to hide, put him in a unique position, a minority within a minority, as it were.
That year was not the first time Rustin was forced to negotiate how much sex could be a part of his life. After his 1953 arrest, in which he’d been picked up with two men in the back seat of a car in Pasadena, California, he wrote, “Sex must be sublimated if I am to live in this world longer.”
Though marginalized by the Civil Rights movement he helped found he was not embittered by the experience. Yet, when one lives in a society in which they’re constantly being told that they’re less than or that they’re not as good as, because of being black, or a Jew, or gay, or anything else deemed less than, a certain amount of the negation is bound to get internalized. That can’t be helped.
Despite it all, Rustin remained upbeat. In 1986, just a year before he died, Rustin gave a speech at the University of Pennsylvania in which he exhorted gay people to “recognize that we cannot fight for the rights of gays unless we are ready to fight for a new mood in the United States, unless we are ready to fight for a radicalization of this society.”
Veering into the economics of poverty, Rustin said, “You will not feed people à la the philosophy of the Reagan administration. Imagine a society that takes lunches from school children. Do you really think it’s possible for gays to get civil rights in that kind of society?”
His thoughtful writing ennobles us all. Rustin never fails to come down on the proper side of a moral or ethical question, no matter whom it may offend or support. He was willing to stand up for people — even though they had mistreated him — if it was a matter of principle.
Rustin’s legacy doesn’t live in the past, but in the present and future of America. His work linking sexual, racial, and economic rights was not only forward-thinking in 1963, but it is also forward-thinking today.
“We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers,” Rustin said in one of his most famous quotes.
Time On Two Crosses is the first comprehensive collection of Bayard Rustin’s writings ever published, comprising forty-eight essays, speeches, and interviews, many of which were never widely available. From the birth of nonviolent direct action to the rise of Black Power, Rustin’s writings function as a road map for the meandering course of the black protest movement over the past century.
As a gay man, I found Bayard Rustin’s writing fascinating and uplifting. They give an unvarnished look into the civil rights movement through the ‘50s and ‘60s, and also a view into the heart and mind of one of the most remarkable men of our time. The book also includes twenty-five photos from the Rustin estate and a foreword by Barack Obama, and an afterword by Barney Frank.
Bayard Rustin is a true hero for the ages. And Time On Two Crosses is a marvelous and edifying read.
The proof that one believes is in action. — Bayard Rustin
The best way to destroy a culture is to deny, suppress, or appropriate that people’s history. A culture without its art, without its myths, without its heroes will soon wither and die. For millennia indigenous peoples all over the world have suffered this kind of cultural rape at the hands of more powerful invaders. In America, slavery and segregation did its worst for African culture. And, in a rather different way, homophobia robbed LGBT people of their sense of self.
Do you know who Bayard Rustin is? I’m gonna guess not. That’s no surprise really, because his life exemplifies the impact that both segregation and homophobia has had on our culture. Despite being pivotal to in the struggle for civil and sexual rights for well over 50 years, he is all but forgotten now. His memory has been whitewashed, if not totally wiped out, and our culture is the poorer because of it. But thanks to Time On Two Crosses this American patriot is reinstated to his rightful place in the American pantheon.
Time On Two Crosses showcases the extraordinary career of this black, gay civil rights pioneer. The book combines classic texts ranging in topic from Gandhi's impact on African Americans, white supremacists in congress, the antiwar movement, and the assassination of Malcolm X, with never-before published selections on the call for gay rights, Louis Farrakhan, affirmative action, AIDS, and women's rights.
Bayard Rustin was a key civil rights strategist and humanitarian whose staunch advocacy of nonviolent resistance shaped the course of social protests from the 1950’s through the close of the twentieth century. And he was also openly gay at a time when that simply didn’t happen, especially among people of color.
Perhaps because of his unique position at the crux of the struggle for civil rights and sexual rights, Rustin insisted on the interconnectedness of all human rights and justice movements. He focuses not only on overturning racism and prejudice but also the systemic causes of injustice and disparity in the US and around the world. And his message on many issues is as relevant today as it was in his lifetime. He writes of himself:
“I am Bayard Rustin, Chairman of the Randolph Institute and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, which is composed of over 150 national groups dedicated to human rights for all. As one who has been active in the struggle to extend democracy to all Americans for over fifty years I am opposed to any attempt to amend the recently enacted law banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
I have been arrested twenty-four times in the struggle for civil and human rights. My first arrest was in 1928 merely for distributing leaflets on behalf of Al Smith’s candidacy for President in a climate of anti-Catholic hysteria. Since that time I have fought against religious intolerance, political harassment, and racism both here and abroad. I have fought against untouchability in India, against tribalism in Africa, and have sought to ensure that refugees coming to our shores are not subject to the same types of bigotry and intolerance from which they fled. As a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council I have fought antisemitism not only in the United States but around the world.”
But Rustin’s sexual openness and his controversial political positions came at a great personal cost. He wound up behind bars for practicing his nonviolent Quaker faith (from 1944 to 1946 in a Pennsylvania prison for conscientiously objecting to serving in World War II) and for practicing homosexuality (60 days in a California jail for “sex perversion” in 1953). And his many achievements — like pioneering one of the first Freedom Rides, refusing to give up his seat on a segregated bus in 1942, more than a dozen years before Rosa Parks did, and helping found the Southern Christian Leadership Coalition to support the efforts of a then young, largely unknown minister named Martin Luther King Jr. — often were tainted under the threat of exposure for his unpopular behavior and criminal convictions.
Bayard Rustin introduced Martin Luther King, Jr. to the precepts of nonviolence during the Montgomery Bus Boycott, thereby launching the birth of the Civil Rights Movement in 1955. When that movement needed a man who could get things done, even his detractors acknowledged he was the best organizer in the country. He was the man who was able to turn out 200,000 people on the Capitol Mall in an orderly fashion when no one else had ever done such a thing. He singlehandedly created the blueprint for the modern American mass political rally. The 1963 March on Washington was the pinnacle of his notoriety.
Few African Americans engaged in as broad a protest agenda as did Rustin; fewer still enjoyed his breadth of influence in virtually every political sector, working with world leaders like Kwame Nkrumah, President Lyndon Johnson, and Golda Meir. Yet, for all his influence and all his tireless efforts, Rustin remained an outsider in black civil rights circles because they refused to accept his homosexuality, which remained a point of contention among black church leaders, a controversy that sometimes even embroiled Dr. King himself.
The very people who he was fighting for shunned him. He was indeed the proverbial prophet “not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house”. (Mark 6:4)
For example, in 1960, Rustin and MLK were preparing to lead a protest of African Americans outside the Democratic National Convention. This would have deeply embarrassed the leading elected black politician of the day, Rep. Adam Clayton Powell. Powell threatened to spread a rumor that Rustin was having a sexual relationship with King. King canceled the protest, and Rustin resigned from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization he helped found. Bayard Rustin felt that his homosexuality, which he never tried to hide, put him in a unique position, a minority within a minority, as it were.
That year was not the first time Rustin was forced to negotiate how much sex could be a part of his life. After his 1953 arrest, in which he’d been picked up with two men in the back seat of a car in Pasadena, California, he wrote, “Sex must be sublimated if I am to live in this world longer.”
Though marginalized by the Civil Rights movement he helped found he was not embittered by the experience. Yet, when one lives in a society in which they’re constantly being told that they’re less than or that they’re not as good as, because of being black, or a Jew, or gay, or anything else deemed less than, a certain amount of the negation is bound to get internalized. That can’t be helped.
Despite it all, Rustin remained upbeat. In 1986, just a year before he died, Rustin gave a speech at the University of Pennsylvania in which he exhorted gay people to “recognize that we cannot fight for the rights of gays unless we are ready to fight for a new mood in the United States, unless we are ready to fight for a radicalization of this society.”
Veering into the economics of poverty, Rustin said, “You will not feed people à la the philosophy of the Reagan administration. Imagine a society that takes lunches from school children. Do you really think it’s possible for gays to get civil rights in that kind of society?”
His thoughtful writing ennobles us all. Rustin never fails to come down on the proper side of a moral or ethical question, no matter whom it may offend or support. He was willing to stand up for people — even though they had mistreated him — if it was a matter of principle.
Rustin’s legacy doesn’t live in the past, but in the present and future of America. His work linking sexual, racial, and economic rights was not only forward-thinking in 1963, but it is also forward-thinking today.
“We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers,” Rustin said in one of his most famous quotes.
Time On Two Crosses is the first comprehensive collection of Bayard Rustin’s writings ever published, comprising forty-eight essays, speeches, and interviews, many of which were never widely available. From the birth of nonviolent direct action to the rise of Black Power, Rustin’s writings function as a road map for the meandering course of the black protest movement over the past century.
As a gay man, I found Bayard Rustin’s writing fascinating and uplifting. They give an unvarnished look into the civil rights movement through the ‘50s and ‘60s, and also a view into the heart and mind of one of the most remarkable men of our time. The book also includes twenty-five photos from the Rustin estate and a foreword by Barack Obama, and an afterword by Barney Frank.
Bayard Rustin is a true hero for the ages. And Time On Two Crosses is a marvelous and edifying read.
June 2, 2014
Stimulating reading on many levels was this, my follow-up to "Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin" by John d'Emilio.
Rustin was a movement strategist par excellence; I wanted to learn as much as I can from his strategical insights. I got that for sure and so much more: Inspiration. Wisdom. And amazement at how much greater impact his Christian faith had on his life and work than was indicated by d'Emilio's biography.
Highpoints: How we taught Black youth that nonviolence doesn't work: Comments on the riots following the assassination of Dr. King (pp. 189-190): "Make no mistake about it: a great psychological barrier has now been placed between those of us who have urged nonviolence as the road to social change and the frustrated, despairing youth of the ghettos. Dr. King's assassination is only the latest example of our society's determination to teach young Negroes that violence pays. We pay no attention to them until they take to the streets in riotous rebellion. Then we make minor concessions--not enough to solve their basic problems, but enough to persuade them that we know they exist. 'Besides,' the young militants will tell you, 'this country was built on violence. Look at what we did to the Indians. Look at our television and movies. And look at Vietnam. If the cause of the Vietnamese is worth taking up guns for, why isn't the cause of the black man right here in Harlem?'
'We are indeed a house divided. But the division between race and race, class and class, will not be dissolved by massive infusions of brotherly sentiment. The division is not the result of bad sentiment and therefore will not be healed by rhetoric. Rather the division and the bad sentiments are both reflections of vast and growing inequalities in our socio-economic system--inequalities of wealth, of status, of education, of access to political power."
p. 234: "The trade union movement is essential to the black struggle because it is the only institution in the society capable of organizing the working poor, so many of whom are Negroes."
P. 200: Quoted A Philip Randolph (1940): "Salvation for a race, nation, or class must come from within. Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justin is never given; it is exacted. Freedom and justice must be struggled for by the oppressed of all lands an races, and the struggle must be continuous, for freedom is never a final act, but a continuing, evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political and religious relationships.
p. 219-220: "The irony of the revolutionary rhetoric uttered in behalf of Negroes is that it has helped in fact to promote conservatism. On the other hand, of course the reverse is also true: the failure of America to respond to the demands of Negroes has fostered in the the midst of the latter a sense of futility and has thus seemed to legitimize a strategy of withdrawal and violence."
Breast-beating white liberals and militant Black Power Negroes "make the same error"...Both are seeking refuge is psychological solutions to social questions. And both are reluctant to confront the real cause of racial injustice, which is not bad attitudes but social conditions. The Negro creates a new psychology to avoid the reality of social stagnation, and the white--be he ever so liberal--profeses his built precisely so as to create the illusion of social change, all the while preserving his economic advantages. The response of guilt and pity to social problems is by no means new. It is, in fact, as old as [human] capacity to rationalize [and reluctance] to make real sacrifices for fellow [human beings]. Two hundred years ago, Samuel Johnson, in an exchange with Boswell, analyzed the phenomenon of sentimentality:
p. 252: "Two hundred years ago, Samuel Johnson in an exchange with Boswell, analyzed the phenominon of sentimentality:
"Boswell:" 'I have often blamed myself, Sir, for not feeling for others, as sensibly as many say they do.'
"Johnson: 'Sir, don't be duped by them any more. You will find these very feeling people are not very ready to do you good. They *pay* you by *feeling.'"
"Today, payments from the rich to the poor take the form of 'giving a damn' or some other kind of moral philanthropy. At the same time, of course, some of those who so 'passionately 'give a damn' are likely to argue that full employment is inflationary."
On trade union movement (p. 234): "The trade union movement is essential to the black struggle because it is the only institution in the society capable of organizing the working poor, so many of whom are Negroes. It is only through an organized movement that these workers, who are now condemned to the margin of the economy, can achieve a measure of dignity and economic security. I must confess I find it difficult to understand the prejudice against the labor movement currently fashionable among so many liberals....
"[I]n fact it is the program of the labor movement that represents a genuine means of reducing racial competition and hostility. Not out of a great tenderness of feeling for black suffering--but that is just the point..Unions organize workers on the basis of common economic interests, not by virtue of racial affinity. Labor's legislative program for full employment, housing, urban reconstruction, tax reform, improved health care, and expanded educational opportunities is designed specifically to aid both whites and blacks in the lower and lower-middle classes where the potential for racial polarization is most severe. And only a program of this kind can deal simultaneously and creatively with the interrelated problems of black rage and white fear."
p. 235 "[A]nything calling itself by the name of political activity must be concerned with building ...a majority movement. ...Negroes must abandon once and for all the false assumption that as 10 percent of the population they can by themselves effect basic changes in the structure of American life. They must, in other words, accept the necessity of coalition politics."
On building a movement: p. 273-4, edited from a talk presented to a gay student group at the University of Pennsylvania in, April 9, 1986: "There are four burdens, which gays, along with every other despised group, whether it is blacks following slavery and reconstruction, or Jews fearful of Germany, must address. The first is to recognize that one must overcome fear. the second is overcoming self-hate. The third is overcoming self-denial. The fourth burden is more political. It is to recognize that the job of the gay community is not to deal with extremists who would castrate us or put us on an island and drop the H-bomb on us. The fact of the matter is that there is a small percentage of people in America who understand the true nature of the homosexual community. There is another small percentage who will never understand us. Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us. Nor was our aim in the civil rights movement to get prejudiced white people to love us. Our aim was to try to create the kind of America, legislatively, morally, and psychologically, such that even though some whites continued to hate us, they could not openly manifest that hate. That's our job today: to control the extent to which people can publicly manifest antigay sentiment.
"Well, what do we have to do that is concrete? We have to fight for legislation wherever we are, to state our case clearly, as blacks had to do in the South when it was profoundly uncomfortable. Some people say to me, 'Well, Mr. Rustin, how long is it going to take?' Let me point out to you that it doesn't take a law to get rid of a practice. We worked for sixty years to g et an antilynch law in this country. We never got an antilynch law, and now we don't need one. It was the propaganda for the law we never got that liberated us."
In other words, educate and agitate and never give up!
Rustin was a movement strategist par excellence; I wanted to learn as much as I can from his strategical insights. I got that for sure and so much more: Inspiration. Wisdom. And amazement at how much greater impact his Christian faith had on his life and work than was indicated by d'Emilio's biography.
Highpoints: How we taught Black youth that nonviolence doesn't work: Comments on the riots following the assassination of Dr. King (pp. 189-190): "Make no mistake about it: a great psychological barrier has now been placed between those of us who have urged nonviolence as the road to social change and the frustrated, despairing youth of the ghettos. Dr. King's assassination is only the latest example of our society's determination to teach young Negroes that violence pays. We pay no attention to them until they take to the streets in riotous rebellion. Then we make minor concessions--not enough to solve their basic problems, but enough to persuade them that we know they exist. 'Besides,' the young militants will tell you, 'this country was built on violence. Look at what we did to the Indians. Look at our television and movies. And look at Vietnam. If the cause of the Vietnamese is worth taking up guns for, why isn't the cause of the black man right here in Harlem?'
'We are indeed a house divided. But the division between race and race, class and class, will not be dissolved by massive infusions of brotherly sentiment. The division is not the result of bad sentiment and therefore will not be healed by rhetoric. Rather the division and the bad sentiments are both reflections of vast and growing inequalities in our socio-economic system--inequalities of wealth, of status, of education, of access to political power."
p. 234: "The trade union movement is essential to the black struggle because it is the only institution in the society capable of organizing the working poor, so many of whom are Negroes."
P. 200: Quoted A Philip Randolph (1940): "Salvation for a race, nation, or class must come from within. Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justin is never given; it is exacted. Freedom and justice must be struggled for by the oppressed of all lands an races, and the struggle must be continuous, for freedom is never a final act, but a continuing, evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political and religious relationships.
p. 219-220: "The irony of the revolutionary rhetoric uttered in behalf of Negroes is that it has helped in fact to promote conservatism. On the other hand, of course the reverse is also true: the failure of America to respond to the demands of Negroes has fostered in the the midst of the latter a sense of futility and has thus seemed to legitimize a strategy of withdrawal and violence."
Breast-beating white liberals and militant Black Power Negroes "make the same error"...Both are seeking refuge is psychological solutions to social questions. And both are reluctant to confront the real cause of racial injustice, which is not bad attitudes but social conditions. The Negro creates a new psychology to avoid the reality of social stagnation, and the white--be he ever so liberal--profeses his built precisely so as to create the illusion of social change, all the while preserving his economic advantages. The response of guilt and pity to social problems is by no means new. It is, in fact, as old as [human] capacity to rationalize [and reluctance] to make real sacrifices for fellow [human beings]. Two hundred years ago, Samuel Johnson, in an exchange with Boswell, analyzed the phenomenon of sentimentality:
p. 252: "Two hundred years ago, Samuel Johnson in an exchange with Boswell, analyzed the phenominon of sentimentality:
"Boswell:" 'I have often blamed myself, Sir, for not feeling for others, as sensibly as many say they do.'
"Johnson: 'Sir, don't be duped by them any more. You will find these very feeling people are not very ready to do you good. They *pay* you by *feeling.'"
"Today, payments from the rich to the poor take the form of 'giving a damn' or some other kind of moral philanthropy. At the same time, of course, some of those who so 'passionately 'give a damn' are likely to argue that full employment is inflationary."
On trade union movement (p. 234): "The trade union movement is essential to the black struggle because it is the only institution in the society capable of organizing the working poor, so many of whom are Negroes. It is only through an organized movement that these workers, who are now condemned to the margin of the economy, can achieve a measure of dignity and economic security. I must confess I find it difficult to understand the prejudice against the labor movement currently fashionable among so many liberals....
"[I]n fact it is the program of the labor movement that represents a genuine means of reducing racial competition and hostility. Not out of a great tenderness of feeling for black suffering--but that is just the point..Unions organize workers on the basis of common economic interests, not by virtue of racial affinity. Labor's legislative program for full employment, housing, urban reconstruction, tax reform, improved health care, and expanded educational opportunities is designed specifically to aid both whites and blacks in the lower and lower-middle classes where the potential for racial polarization is most severe. And only a program of this kind can deal simultaneously and creatively with the interrelated problems of black rage and white fear."
p. 235 "[A]nything calling itself by the name of political activity must be concerned with building ...a majority movement. ...Negroes must abandon once and for all the false assumption that as 10 percent of the population they can by themselves effect basic changes in the structure of American life. They must, in other words, accept the necessity of coalition politics."
On building a movement: p. 273-4, edited from a talk presented to a gay student group at the University of Pennsylvania in, April 9, 1986: "There are four burdens, which gays, along with every other despised group, whether it is blacks following slavery and reconstruction, or Jews fearful of Germany, must address. The first is to recognize that one must overcome fear. the second is overcoming self-hate. The third is overcoming self-denial. The fourth burden is more political. It is to recognize that the job of the gay community is not to deal with extremists who would castrate us or put us on an island and drop the H-bomb on us. The fact of the matter is that there is a small percentage of people in America who understand the true nature of the homosexual community. There is another small percentage who will never understand us. Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us. Nor was our aim in the civil rights movement to get prejudiced white people to love us. Our aim was to try to create the kind of America, legislatively, morally, and psychologically, such that even though some whites continued to hate us, they could not openly manifest that hate. That's our job today: to control the extent to which people can publicly manifest antigay sentiment.
"Well, what do we have to do that is concrete? We have to fight for legislation wherever we are, to state our case clearly, as blacks had to do in the South when it was profoundly uncomfortable. Some people say to me, 'Well, Mr. Rustin, how long is it going to take?' Let me point out to you that it doesn't take a law to get rid of a practice. We worked for sixty years to g et an antilynch law in this country. We never got an antilynch law, and now we don't need one. It was the propaganda for the law we never got that liberated us."
In other words, educate and agitate and never give up!
August 6, 2020
A stunningly rich collection of essays, interviews, and speeches on civil rights activism by one of the towering figures in the history of non-violent social and political struggle.
April 1, 2014
I read this along with the biography by John D'Emilio. These writings have an immediacy to them; one feels immersed in the times and events that Rustin is experiencing. One gets glimpses of Rustin's charisma. I listened to the Audible books on tape version. It may have been particularly effective. I am struck by Ruskin's commitment to nonviolence and the breath of the issues in which he was involved.
June 11, 2016
A great way at looking at individual primary sources and writings by Rustin.
The only negative thing I have to say is that the source does not give any indication of where and specifically when they were published. The context of them is wasted unless you have much understanding of what was happening at that point in time.
Other than that, a really helpful and informative read.
The only negative thing I have to say is that the source does not give any indication of where and specifically when they were published. The context of them is wasted unless you have much understanding of what was happening at that point in time.
Other than that, a really helpful and informative read.
May 21, 2016
Mr. Rustin was true pioneer. Humble, dogged, intellectual...the man behind the movement. His actions inspire me to be a better citizen and to be a voice for those who need to be fought for. I hope all activists learn from his compassion and strategy.
November 6, 2008
An awesome collection of essays that explore the complexities of several social movements.
I love this man!
I love this man!
June 27, 2010
B I heard about Bayard Rustin, an amazing Civil Rights and LGBT activist, on NPR. This book collects many of his speeches, essays, and journals. Eye-opening essays.
December 5, 2021
This was okay. I wanted to learn more about Rustin, who I only learned of recently, and his role in bringing pacifist approaches to the civil rights movement.
The thing is, Rustin wasn't so much a writer, but was primarily an organizer. This book was long and many of his writings - things like political pamphlets - are so specific to a particular time and place not familiar to me that it was difficult to follow them. Many were pretty dry. I probably enjoyed the introduction best, which gave a great overview of Rustin's life and contributions.
This is not to say, however, that I found reading/listening to his writings without value. His essay about his experiences on a chain gain (sentenced for homosexual activity) particularly stays with me. The horrible conditions the men were subjected to, and his kind of social experiments he does with the guards and his turn-the-other cheek approach. They're not sure what to do with that. His detailed account of the Freedom Rides was also memorable, and the stories of the passengers who choose to act in solidarity with Rustin and his fellow freedom riders, and those who didn't.
Something overall I appreciated about Rustin was that he thought for himself. He was not particularly swayed by the often purist nature of political movements. He was a pacifist when it was unpopular in the civil rights movement. He was gay when it was unpopular in the civil rights movement. He joined the labour movement despite its overall lack of strong anti-racist politics because he understood labour issues as central for Black elevation. He walked back his positions on things when he re-examined them and changed his mind. He also believed in building coalitions across difference. Working with white folks, straight folks, and members of the more militant Black Power movement, like Malcolm X (the collection includes a fascinating dialogue between the two men). Some would call this weak liberalism. But I respect his integrity in forging his own path, even if I don't agree with him on everything (Israel in particular).
As I listened, I scrawled down snippets that resonated for me or with our current moment.
In reference to the idealization of Mao Tse Tung, Guevera, Fanon, and Castro by people he sees as not genuinely communists:
"The frustrated adopt heros of foreign revolution not because they believe in their philosophy, but because they want to adopt extreme tactivs that they believe have worked for those heroes"
"People in ghettos seek immediate gratification because they can't afford to think ahead." - In an essay on poverty he talked about how poor people don't fill the salt shaker till they've reached the last grain because they can't, but tells the story of a poor man buying uneconomical alligator shoes because this brings a moment of beauty to his life. It gives him psychological satisfaction. I feel like this psychology of poverty/want is only now being more fulsomely written about (at least that I am aware of)
"All over the country people are beating their breasts calling mia culpa, I'm so sorry that I am a racist, which means really that they want to cop out, because if racism is to be solved on an individual basis, there is little hope" - this one particularly struck me in our moment of Black Lives Matter and Indigenous sovereignty movements. Acknowledging our privilege and our white fragility ultimately does very little to undermine racism, which is structural. When we focus too much on the personal rather than trying to have an effect on structures of power however we can, we are actually opting out while appearing to opt in. Kendi takes up this mantle powerfully.
The thing is, Rustin wasn't so much a writer, but was primarily an organizer. This book was long and many of his writings - things like political pamphlets - are so specific to a particular time and place not familiar to me that it was difficult to follow them. Many were pretty dry. I probably enjoyed the introduction best, which gave a great overview of Rustin's life and contributions.
This is not to say, however, that I found reading/listening to his writings without value. His essay about his experiences on a chain gain (sentenced for homosexual activity) particularly stays with me. The horrible conditions the men were subjected to, and his kind of social experiments he does with the guards and his turn-the-other cheek approach. They're not sure what to do with that. His detailed account of the Freedom Rides was also memorable, and the stories of the passengers who choose to act in solidarity with Rustin and his fellow freedom riders, and those who didn't.
Something overall I appreciated about Rustin was that he thought for himself. He was not particularly swayed by the often purist nature of political movements. He was a pacifist when it was unpopular in the civil rights movement. He was gay when it was unpopular in the civil rights movement. He joined the labour movement despite its overall lack of strong anti-racist politics because he understood labour issues as central for Black elevation. He walked back his positions on things when he re-examined them and changed his mind. He also believed in building coalitions across difference. Working with white folks, straight folks, and members of the more militant Black Power movement, like Malcolm X (the collection includes a fascinating dialogue between the two men). Some would call this weak liberalism. But I respect his integrity in forging his own path, even if I don't agree with him on everything (Israel in particular).
As I listened, I scrawled down snippets that resonated for me or with our current moment.
In reference to the idealization of Mao Tse Tung, Guevera, Fanon, and Castro by people he sees as not genuinely communists:
"The frustrated adopt heros of foreign revolution not because they believe in their philosophy, but because they want to adopt extreme tactivs that they believe have worked for those heroes"
"People in ghettos seek immediate gratification because they can't afford to think ahead." - In an essay on poverty he talked about how poor people don't fill the salt shaker till they've reached the last grain because they can't, but tells the story of a poor man buying uneconomical alligator shoes because this brings a moment of beauty to his life. It gives him psychological satisfaction. I feel like this psychology of poverty/want is only now being more fulsomely written about (at least that I am aware of)
"All over the country people are beating their breasts calling mia culpa, I'm so sorry that I am a racist, which means really that they want to cop out, because if racism is to be solved on an individual basis, there is little hope" - this one particularly struck me in our moment of Black Lives Matter and Indigenous sovereignty movements. Acknowledging our privilege and our white fragility ultimately does very little to undermine racism, which is structural. When we focus too much on the personal rather than trying to have an effect on structures of power however we can, we are actually opting out while appearing to opt in. Kendi takes up this mantle powerfully.
June 2, 2019
A few weeks ago I cam across a NYT video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fybq5...) on a gay black civil rights leader who opposed affirmative action I posted a while back. A friend and I went all in on this guy and it was life-changing. Not only it turns out he was the one who introduced MLK to non-violence, but he was also a critical figure in the Montgomery Bus boycott and many other civil rights actions. Furthermore, as a Marxist, he believed the struggle for African American rights had to be built upon a foundation of economic progress that could benefit all classes, and as such was a key figure along with MLK to connect the civil rights movement with the labor movement in the US. On top of that, he is of the Thomas Sowell school of thought of arguing against reverse-racism and separatists attitudes within Afro-political thought. Most of all though, he was an inspiring man: he was ostracized by many civil rights leader because he was gay and yet never resented them, and instead worked with them whenever possible to advance causes he believed in. He had a global perspective on the struggle for justice, which took him from marching with Gandhi all the way to the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa. I can’t recommend this enough.
January 10, 2020
This book predominately is made up of the writings of a man who died in 1987 at the age of 75. He was active during the 1950s until his death in the civil rights and peace and justice movement. In spite of being a relatively major player in those movements, He was relatively unrecognized and unknown publicly. His points of view as a black gay pacifist provide some insight into many of the issues faced by US blacks during his lifetime. Most of his writings reflect his public comments regarding many issues impacting blacks in the world. The first section of the book is a brief biography. There is very little in the book that offers any critique or in depth exploration of his beliefs and actions. Nor does this book offer much self analysis or self criticism by the author.
March 10, 2021
This collection of writings by the civil rights activist, Bayard Rustin, reveals the scope of his prodigious intellect and intense passion for justice. As an openly gay, Black man, he was an advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during and after the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the deputy organizer of the March on Washington. His career of activism spanned conscientious objection during World War II to advocating for gay rights in the 1980's. His is not a name as prominent as many leaders of the civil rights leaders, but he possessed an intellect and will that were instrumental to the movement's success. This collection provides a picture through his writings of this exceptional man.
September 28, 2023
This is a collection of essays and reports Rustin wrote over decades of civil rights, labor, and gay rights activism. Rustin always writes with precision and clarity. I prefer the personal narratives, interviews, and arguments about systems. There is some redundancy as information, data, and ideas are repeated in various essays. A reader might also be surprised by some latter-in-life accommodations to Eldridge Cleaver and Thomas Sowell. I also note that Rustin's view of Africa's future (particularly Zimbabwe) was overtaken by events.
February 13, 2024
Must Read for a deeper understanding of the civil rights movement!
I was unaware of how important Mr. Rustin was in the civil rights movement until I saw the movie about him. Reading his actual words helped me understand more of who he was and what was going on in the world. He was instrumental in the nonviolence movement for equal rights. It's sad his voice is often overlooked because he was gay. Reading this was eye opening for me, not just because of racial prejudice but also discrimination because of sexual orientation.
I was unaware of how important Mr. Rustin was in the civil rights movement until I saw the movie about him. Reading his actual words helped me understand more of who he was and what was going on in the world. He was instrumental in the nonviolence movement for equal rights. It's sad his voice is often overlooked because he was gay. Reading this was eye opening for me, not just because of racial prejudice but also discrimination because of sexual orientation.
May 10, 2020
Solid read. Not sure how to rate the writing but the subject matter is interesting. It offers a 3rd perspective between Malcolm X/Dr. King flag poles often center the black civil rights movement. His message would have far more voice in today's America. pay attention to the voices that are on the periphery of society they may find greater root in the future. Also, learn and understand timing. people are dumb and cannot handle more than one issue at a time.
September 6, 2019
I learned a lot from reading this book, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in civil and human rights. My only critique is that the editor's choice to organize the writings thematically, rather than chronologically, confused me at times since the book spans such a large portion of history (1940s-1980s).
April 21, 2020
This collection of essays, speeches and interviews gives an insightful look at the civil rights movement in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s as well as an examination of the gay rights movement in the 80’s. The writing is eloquent and moving. The big take away is equal rights for one group demands equal rights protected by legislation for all.
February 27, 2021
Rustin is an activist and philosopher that I am woefully undereducated on. I am happy to have read this collection of his writings that spans decades and topics. While I'm not typically chomping at the bit to read historical and politically motivated essays in bulk, I found Rustin's writing to be very straightforward, thought-provoking, and personal. The editors do a good job of dividing essays into themes.
September 8, 2024
This is a great collection of writings and speeches that give wonderful insights into the civil rights movement. I wished there was a more unifying framework to the essays but still find them persuasive. Rustin eloquently argues for justice throughout his long career. Many of the insights and key points are surprisingly still accurate today. Well worth the read
March 15, 2018
Mr. Rustin was a pioneer on many fronts. He added freedom writers, gay rights and Gandhi philosophy to the Civil Rights lexicon. His writings gives a view of a complicated but important figure in American History. Fascinating read.
August 22, 2019
Mentally ill
It has been that when the oppressed become the oppressed they are worse the people who lunch and kill others for seeking the freedoms that they themselves came but insanely deny to people the who did ask to come here really sick probably irreparably so.
It has been that when the oppressed become the oppressed they are worse the people who lunch and kill others for seeking the freedoms that they themselves came but insanely deny to people the who did ask to come here really sick probably irreparably so.
March 13, 2021
This was both amazing to read, getting a front line look at the different causes and fights Mr Rustin had and his feelings about them, and incredibly depressing to read, because some of the essays writing 40 or more years ago are still relavent today.
July 31, 2023
A superb anthology of Bayard Rustin’s writings depicting his views on pacifism, activism, and civil rights for Black and gay people. This book is easy to recommend for anyone who knows little about the man who mentored Martin Luther King during the Civil Rights movement.
September 2, 2019
Bayard Rustin helped make America what it is. Hard-won wisdom from an extremely effective and undersung organizer.
March 24, 2021
Amazing writings by a fascinating man
August 24, 2021
Everyone read.
March 19, 2022
Very interesting collection of essays spanning a very long career working for the civil right movement and working towards equality for everyone.
June 29, 2024
Rusting showed consistent and sympathetic understanding of humanity both as the individual and in society throughout his writing. I'll be returning to this book in the future.
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