Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustinwas an American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. He was born and raised in Pennsylvania, where his family was involved in civil rights work. In 1936, he moved to Harlem, New York City, where he earned a living as a nightclub and stage singer. He continued activism for civil rights...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCivil Rights Leader
Date of Birth17 March 1912
CityWest Chester, PA
CountryUnited States of America
The only weapon we have is our bodies, and we need to tuck them in places so wheels don't turn
If I do not fight bigotry wherever it is, bigotry is thereby strengthened. And to the degree that it is strengthened, it will, thereby, have the power to turn on me.
Bigotrys birthplace is the sinister back room of the mind where plots and schemes are hatched for the persecution and oppression of other human beings.
The moral man is he who is opposed to injustice per se, opposed to injustice wherever he finds it; the moral man looks for injustice first of all in himself.
Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new ‘niggers’ are gays. It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change. The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people.
Gays are beginning to realize what blacks learned long ago: Unless you are out here fighting for yourself then nobody else will help you. I think the gay community has a moral obligation to continue the fight.
If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end.
If we desire a society in which men are brothers, then we must act towards one another with brotherhood. If we can build such a society, then we would have achieved the ultimate goal of human freedom.
The real radical is that person who has a vision of equality and is willing to do those things that will bring reality closer to that vision. . .
We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.
When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.
We are all one - and if we don't know it, we will learn it the hard way.
Let us be enraged about injustice, but let us not be destroyed by it.
God does not require us to achieve any of the good tasks that humanity must pursue. What God requires of us is that we not stop trying.