http://bp2.blogger.com/_riUxzwOrnLI/R_kQIHQXvcI/AAAAAAAAAIU/txnyccUla1A/s320/MLK+%26+Bayard+Rustin.jpg
"Twenty-five, thirty years ago, the barometer of human rights in the United States were black people. That is no longer true. The barometer for judging the character of people in regard to human rights is now those who consider themselves gay, homosexual, lesbian." - Bayard Rustin, a year before his death in 1987
Who was Bayard Rustin?
Certainly there are many who knew of him, and know his story well, but I did not and wanted to post for him on this great day. The only reference I knew that involved him (but not by name) was the attack of former senator Strom Thurmond, who produced a photo of a man talking to King when he was taking a bath to imply that King was gay, and only came across who Rustin was in detail a month ago, when my mother sent me a link detailing a brief history of his amazing life as MLK's top adviser and the main organizer of the March on Washington where King gave his famed, "I have a dream" declaration.
Here's some info from wiki -
Rustin took leave from the War Resisters League in 1956 to advise Martin Luther King Jr., on Gandhian tactics as King organized the public transportation boycott in Montgomery, Alabama known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The following year, Rustin and King began organizing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Many African-American leaders were concerned that Rustin's sexual orientation and Communist past would undermine support for the civil rights movement. U.S. Representative Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. forced Rustin's resignation from the SCLC in 1960 by threatening to discuss Rustin's morals charge in Congress. Although Rustin was open about his sexual orientation and his conviction was a matter of public record, it had not been discussed widely outside the civil rights leadership.
When Rustin and Randolph organized the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, Senator Strom Thurmond railed against Rustin as a "Communist, draft-dodger, and homosexual" and produced an FBI photograph of Rustin talking to King while King was bathing, to imply that there was a same-sex relationship between the two. Both men denied the allegation of an affair, but, despite King's support, NAACP chairman Roy Wilkins did not allow Rustin to receive any public recognition for his role in planning the march.
After passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act, Rustin advocated closer ties between the civil rights movement and the Democratic Party and its labor activist base. Rustin was an early supporter of President Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam policy, but as the war escalated and began to supersede Democratic programs for racial reconciliation and labor reform, Rustin returned to his pacifist roots. Still, he was seen as a "sell-out" by the burgeoning Black Power movement, whose identity politics he rejected.
During the early 1970s Rustin served on the board of trustees of the University of Notre Dame.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Rustin worked as a human rights and election monitor for Freedom House. He also testified on behalf of New York State's Gay Rights Bill and, in 1986, claimed that the gay and lesbian community had become the "barometer" of human rights because it is "the community which is most easily mistreated." He also urged gay and lesbian organizations to stand up for all minorities.
Rustin died on August 24, 1987, of a perforated appendix. He is survived by his partner of ten years, Walter Naegle, who is his executor and chief archivist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayard_Rustinhttp://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USArustin.htmhttp://www.quakerinfo.com/quak_br.shtml
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
