Bayard Rustin
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Introduction
Bayard Rustin was a human rights and social justice activist who was vocal during the Civil Rights movements in the 1950s and 1960s. Rustin was born in Pennsylvania and later moved to New York, where he continued with his civil rights activities. Rustin’s main involvement in social justice issues was between 1947 and 1945, where he helped start the Freedom Ride that challenged racial segregation with civil disobedience. In addition, Rustin was an active member of Martin Luther King Jr’s leadership, where he and other leaders supported the use of non- violent practices and resistance against white dominance. Rustin had learned the aspect of non- violence while working with Mahatma Gandhi’s movement in India. From 1955 to 1968, Rustin was a leading strategist and organizer of the Civil Rights Movement.
Biographical sketches of the minority leader
Rustin was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1912. Rustin was an African American who was raised by his maternal grandparents. He was born into an African American family and raised by his maternal grandparents (Carbado & Weise, 2004). In his early years, Rustin engaged in music and sports. Also, Rustin excelled in academics, and during his senior years, he became a valedictorian in West Chester Senior High School. Rustin began fighting for equal rights in high school and, at one time, insisted that black players be treated the same as their white counterparts.
Rustin was admitted to Wilberforce University in Ohio and later Chaney State Teachers College. After college, Rustin dedicated his life to the peace and civil rights cause. Rustin joined the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in 1937 and later joined the Young Communist League (Hodder, 2016). His devotion later led him to join the March on Washington group headed by A. Philip Randolph that focused on ending racial discrimination in the defense. In 1942, Rustin and James Farmer founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and he became the secretary. In 1943, Rustin was arrested and spent 28 months in federal prison when he refused to take a physical examination.
In 1953, Rustin was arrested on homosexuality charges and was jailed for two months in Pasadena jail. Over the years, he had not hidden his homosexual orientation hence losing favor of most leaders that facilitated the Civil Rights Movements. He did not neglect his activist activities, but most of the organizations he worked for did not publicize his association (Purnell, 2016). For example, in 1963, when King was organizing the March for Jobs and Freedom, Randolf was declared the main publicist, but Rustin had organized most activities. While managing the march, Rustin paid to detail to the simplest aspects hence making it a success.
Rustin’s political philosophy was based on Pacifism of the Quaker’s, non- violent resistance of Mahatma Gandhi, and socialist by A. Philip Rudolph. During his life, Rustin was arrested several times for challenging the ideals of the government (Cashin, 2005). For example, he was jailed for two years during the Second World War for failing to register for the draft. In 1947, he was arrested in North Carolina and sentenced to work in prisons for participating in the protests against the segregated public bus system. In 1953, he was arrested on a moral charge for engaging in homosexual activities and was sentenced to two months in jail. This incidence did not, however, deter him from living as an openly gay man. In the 1950s, Rustin participated in the Civil Rights movements as an organizer and coordinator. In 1958, he attended the march in Aldermaston, England, where civilians protested against the government’s use of nuclear weapons (Carbado & Weise, 2004).
Public/ social welfare policy the leader helped in shaping
In 1947, Rustin was among the individuals who pioneered the Freedom Ride across the south where blacks protested against people’s segregation in interstate buses. Rustin was arrested and appeared in Chapel Hill, N.C. and charged with violating the segregation laws set by the state (Hodder, 2016). He was convicted and spent one month of hard labor in a chain gang. When the New York Post told his story, the prison reforms in the state were abolished.
Rustin was also instrumental in President Truman’s directive to desegregate the armed forces in 1948. This began in 1947, when Rustin and his committee sought to overturn the laws that supported discrimination in the armed forces (Purnell, 2016). Later, Rustin traveled to Africa in Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa, where he advised leaders to support the non- violent civil disobedience campaigns that sought to liberate African Americans. Rustin also participated in the campaign against the use of nuclear arms in England.
During the Civil Rights Movements, Rustin was instrumental in developing tactics that promoted its success. In 1955, Rustin organized the Montgomery Boycott alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that sought to end segregation in the local buses. Rustin remained King Jr’s close associate and adviser until the 1960s (Jones, 2010). In 1963, Randolph and Rustin organized the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” that marked a century after the Emancipation period. This set the pace for writing the “I Have a Dream” speech delivered by King Jr. later that year. The speech also facilitated the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1963 and the Voting Rights Act in 1964.
The passage of the 1964- 1965 Civil Rights legislation moved the civil rights movement from a period of protest to politics, where the blacks joined the labor movement (Cashin, 2005). Therefore, Rustin joined the AFL- CIOs, an organization that sought to help all the African Americans join the union. Rustin was honored with many awards throughout his life that portrayed his devotion to social justice issues in the U. S. Rustin’s writings on civil rights were documented in the “Down the Line” and “Strategies for Freedom” collections in 1971 and 1976, respectively. As a leader with excellent oratory skills, Rustin continued championing economic equality and social rights for minority groups. Rustin died of a ruptured appendix in New York in 1975 at 75 (Jones, 2010). To mark his immense contribution to social justice issues, President Barack Obama honored him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013 posthumously.
Conclusion
Rustin was involved in social justice and human rights activities until the end of his life. His main contribution can be seen in the 1950s, and 1960’s when he became a main strategist and organizer in the Civil Rights Movements. Specifically, Rustin taught King Jr. on Gandhi’s philosophy of non- violent resistance and civil disobedience. Besides, Rustin helped King plan the successful boycott that ended the segregated bus system in Montgomery in 1956. Also, Rustin was a key personality in organizing the March on Washington, where King delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream Speech,” written by Rustin and his close associates.
References
Carbado, D. W. & Weise, D. (2004). The civil rights identity of Bayard Rustin. Texas Law Review, 82, 5, 1133- 1141.
Cashin, S. D. (2005). The civil rights act of 1964 and coalition politics. Saint Louis University Law Journal, 49, 1029- 1046.
Hodder, J. (2016). Toward a geography of black internationalism: Bayard Rustin, non- violence and the promise of Africa. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 106, 66, 1360- 1377. https:doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2016.1203284.
Jones, W. P. (2010). The unknown origins of the March on Washington: Civil rights politics and the black working class. Labor: Studies in working-class history of the Americas, 7, 3, 33- 52. https://doi.org/10.1215/15476715-2010-008
Purnell, B. (2016). Freedom North studies, the long civil rights movement and twentieth-century liberalism in American cities. Journal of Urban History, 42, 3, 634- 640. https://doi.org/10.1177/0096144116635149