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Bayard Rustin: Troubles I've Seen: A Biography
The first full-scale biography of Bayard Rustin profiles the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington and the Montgomery bus boycott, the architect of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and a major figure in the Civil Rights movement.
418 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 1997
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January 26, 2020
As exemplified in this biography Bayard Rustin was a complicated person. From the very beginning of his life he was a committed pacifist and was jailed for refusing to serve in World War II. He was an active member in various pacifist groups, some of them Quaker.
He also, in his quest for racial justice, became drawn to civil rights groups. He was a great behind the scenes organizer and would expedite and facilitate events. He built up a huge network of contacts between the various civil rights groups and peace groups like CORE, NAACP, SCLC and the emerging SNCC. Each of these groups saw themselves as being the prominent voice of their people, so Bayard Rustin had to weave through the various personalities to accomplish consensus. After the Montgomery bus boycott he was instrumental in drawing up the charter of SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) which Martin Luther King Jr. became the leader of.
Bayard Rustin was the main organizer of the very memorable 1963 March on Washington. He successfully coalesced all the old and new civil rights groups to unify for this as well as the over two hundred thousand attendees.
Bayard Rustin travelled extensively for peace groups – to Europe, India, and Africa.
As mentioned, Bayard Rustin was a complicated man; even though born in Pennsylvania he cultivated a pronounced British accent and was a snappy dresser. He was also gay which accounts for some of the antagonism he felt from some of the civil rights groups, more so those based in the southern United States. But he experienced no such condemnation from Martin Luther King. For many reasons, Bayard Rustin was under surveillance from the FBI (he did have some affiliations in his younger days with the communist party). This was at a time when black people were being prevented from voting in southern states and when they were being lynched, but the FBI was more interested in persecuting potential communists.
This biography gives us many personal insights into who Bayard Rustin was and his relationship to many different people and activist groups. I would not go so far as to say the book is fawning on him, but I got the impression that Bayard Rustin was somewhat of a snob. But a very talented and gregarious one!
He also, in his quest for racial justice, became drawn to civil rights groups. He was a great behind the scenes organizer and would expedite and facilitate events. He built up a huge network of contacts between the various civil rights groups and peace groups like CORE, NAACP, SCLC and the emerging SNCC. Each of these groups saw themselves as being the prominent voice of their people, so Bayard Rustin had to weave through the various personalities to accomplish consensus. After the Montgomery bus boycott he was instrumental in drawing up the charter of SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) which Martin Luther King Jr. became the leader of.
Bayard Rustin was the main organizer of the very memorable 1963 March on Washington. He successfully coalesced all the old and new civil rights groups to unify for this as well as the over two hundred thousand attendees.
Bayard Rustin travelled extensively for peace groups – to Europe, India, and Africa.
As mentioned, Bayard Rustin was a complicated man; even though born in Pennsylvania he cultivated a pronounced British accent and was a snappy dresser. He was also gay which accounts for some of the antagonism he felt from some of the civil rights groups, more so those based in the southern United States. But he experienced no such condemnation from Martin Luther King. For many reasons, Bayard Rustin was under surveillance from the FBI (he did have some affiliations in his younger days with the communist party). This was at a time when black people were being prevented from voting in southern states and when they were being lynched, but the FBI was more interested in persecuting potential communists.
This biography gives us many personal insights into who Bayard Rustin was and his relationship to many different people and activist groups. I would not go so far as to say the book is fawning on him, but I got the impression that Bayard Rustin was somewhat of a snob. But a very talented and gregarious one!
April 13, 2012
Bayard Rustin's death in 1987, The New York Post editorialized, marked "the passing of the last great apostle of the creed of nonviolence." Author Jervis Anderson brings him to life.
Without Rustin, the 20th-century civil rights movement in the United States would have unfolded very differently. Rustin influenced Martin Luther King by guiding King as he incorporated into the movement the Gandhian principles of non-violence that because its most notable and effective feature. Rustin gave King valuable strategic advice on everything from the Montgomery bus boycott that started King's career to the sanitation strike in Memphis at which King was assassinated in 1968.
Rustin was the architect of the pivotal 1963 March on Washington that marked the movement's transformation into an effective legislative force. He convinced a reluctant King to speak, which provided the platform from which King ringingly proclaimed, "I have a dream." Rustin's foresight and meticulous planning helped -- in the days before marches on Washington became familiar rituals -- to prevent the violence that many feared would mar the March and set back efforts to end racial discrimination.
Life magazine, then one of the most important media outlets in the world, recognized Rustin's vital role when it put him on the cover of its issue about the March, along with Rustin's mentor, A. Philip Randolph, who had envisioned a similar march in 1941 but called it off at the request of Franklin Roosevelt.
Rustin rarely was lit by the kind of spotlight shone by Life. Mostly he tried to avoid publicity because he feared that his homosexuality and socialism would be used against the movement by its opponents. And they were, especially by Adam Clayton Powell, the U.S. Representative who wanted the spotlight for himself, and Strom Thurmond, the U.S. Senator who fought to preserve segregation.
The historian Jervis Anderson worked for Rustin from 1966 to 1968. His Bayard Rustin: Troubles I've Seen, a Biography is a detailed, affectionate account of Rustin's complex personality and his varied work crusading for peaceful social change around the world. Until someone writes the comprehensive, multi-volume biography of Rustin that his character and career warrant, Anderson's Bayard Rustin holds his place in history well.
The book falls short of being a top-tier biography because it slights its subject's own words. Anderson calls Rustin "one of the more articulate and engaging public speakers of his time" and says that "with his clear and crisp and intellectually sparkling presentations, he had no equal in lucid, instructive extemporaneous oratory." But he leaves us to take his word for this most of the time. The biography Bayard Rustin, which quotes its subject in more detail about his beloved antiques than about his beliefs, would have been richer if Anderson had made better use of Rustin's own words.
Rustin was born and raised in a family of prominent Quakers in Pennsylvania. His family history was complicated. The people he thought were his parents actually were his grandparents. One of his "aunts" was his mother. The family maintained the deception to avoid the scandal of an out-of-wedlock birth.
It was not until he was in his mid-60s that Rustin found lasting romantic love. Anderson gives extensive consideration to Rustin's homosexuality and how it affected his work, but he makes only fleeting mention of Rustin's partner, Walter Naegle. A slightly better source on their relationship is John D'Emilio's Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin.
When he died at age 75 in 1987, Rustin was revered for his involvement in the U.S. civil rights movement and his wide-ranging work around the globe, including efforts to encourage nuclear disarmament and to secure independence for African nations. It wasn't always like that. In the late 1960s, his consensus activism was too moderate for radicals demanding "black power." They regarded Rustin with skepticism, even scorn.
This painfully echoed an earlier disappointment. Before the Republican and Democratic presidential conventions in 1960, Adam Clayton Powell threatened to leak fabricated allegations of a sexual affair between Rustin and King. Powell demanded that King distance himself from the man who helped him develop from a regional leader into an international icon. King acquiesced and was rebuked by James Baldwin and others who rallied to Rustin's defense. King and Rustin worked together after that and Rustin accompanied King to Oslo in 1964 when King received the Nobel Prize for Peace, but their friendship never fully recovered.
More than a decade earlier when Rustin first met the Kings, he offered a letter of introduction. Coretta Scott King waved it away. She remembered him from when he spoke at her high school about pacifism in the early 1940s. She said, "I know you, Mr. Rustin."
Anderson's Bayard Rustin: Troubles I've Seen, A Biography allows the rest of us to know him also.
Without Rustin, the 20th-century civil rights movement in the United States would have unfolded very differently. Rustin influenced Martin Luther King by guiding King as he incorporated into the movement the Gandhian principles of non-violence that because its most notable and effective feature. Rustin gave King valuable strategic advice on everything from the Montgomery bus boycott that started King's career to the sanitation strike in Memphis at which King was assassinated in 1968.
Rustin was the architect of the pivotal 1963 March on Washington that marked the movement's transformation into an effective legislative force. He convinced a reluctant King to speak, which provided the platform from which King ringingly proclaimed, "I have a dream." Rustin's foresight and meticulous planning helped -- in the days before marches on Washington became familiar rituals -- to prevent the violence that many feared would mar the March and set back efforts to end racial discrimination.
Life magazine, then one of the most important media outlets in the world, recognized Rustin's vital role when it put him on the cover of its issue about the March, along with Rustin's mentor, A. Philip Randolph, who had envisioned a similar march in 1941 but called it off at the request of Franklin Roosevelt.
Rustin rarely was lit by the kind of spotlight shone by Life. Mostly he tried to avoid publicity because he feared that his homosexuality and socialism would be used against the movement by its opponents. And they were, especially by Adam Clayton Powell, the U.S. Representative who wanted the spotlight for himself, and Strom Thurmond, the U.S. Senator who fought to preserve segregation.
The historian Jervis Anderson worked for Rustin from 1966 to 1968. His Bayard Rustin: Troubles I've Seen, a Biography is a detailed, affectionate account of Rustin's complex personality and his varied work crusading for peaceful social change around the world. Until someone writes the comprehensive, multi-volume biography of Rustin that his character and career warrant, Anderson's Bayard Rustin holds his place in history well.
The book falls short of being a top-tier biography because it slights its subject's own words. Anderson calls Rustin "one of the more articulate and engaging public speakers of his time" and says that "with his clear and crisp and intellectually sparkling presentations, he had no equal in lucid, instructive extemporaneous oratory." But he leaves us to take his word for this most of the time. The biography Bayard Rustin, which quotes its subject in more detail about his beloved antiques than about his beliefs, would have been richer if Anderson had made better use of Rustin's own words.
Rustin was born and raised in a family of prominent Quakers in Pennsylvania. His family history was complicated. The people he thought were his parents actually were his grandparents. One of his "aunts" was his mother. The family maintained the deception to avoid the scandal of an out-of-wedlock birth.
It was not until he was in his mid-60s that Rustin found lasting romantic love. Anderson gives extensive consideration to Rustin's homosexuality and how it affected his work, but he makes only fleeting mention of Rustin's partner, Walter Naegle. A slightly better source on their relationship is John D'Emilio's Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin.
When he died at age 75 in 1987, Rustin was revered for his involvement in the U.S. civil rights movement and his wide-ranging work around the globe, including efforts to encourage nuclear disarmament and to secure independence for African nations. It wasn't always like that. In the late 1960s, his consensus activism was too moderate for radicals demanding "black power." They regarded Rustin with skepticism, even scorn.
This painfully echoed an earlier disappointment. Before the Republican and Democratic presidential conventions in 1960, Adam Clayton Powell threatened to leak fabricated allegations of a sexual affair between Rustin and King. Powell demanded that King distance himself from the man who helped him develop from a regional leader into an international icon. King acquiesced and was rebuked by James Baldwin and others who rallied to Rustin's defense. King and Rustin worked together after that and Rustin accompanied King to Oslo in 1964 when King received the Nobel Prize for Peace, but their friendship never fully recovered.
More than a decade earlier when Rustin first met the Kings, he offered a letter of introduction. Coretta Scott King waved it away. She remembered him from when he spoke at her high school about pacifism in the early 1940s. She said, "I know you, Mr. Rustin."
Anderson's Bayard Rustin: Troubles I've Seen, A Biography allows the rest of us to know him also.
June 14, 2024
A FRANK AND VERY INFORMATIVE BIOGRAPHY OF THE BLACK LEADER
Jervis Anderson (1932-2000) was a Jamaican-born American biographer and journalist, who was a staff writer for The New Yorker from 1968 to 1998.
He wrote in the first chapter of this 1997 book, “in the fifty years of his engagement with public issues, [Rustin] had been one of the more earnest political intellectuals in American life. Like many young idealists in the late 1930s, he had had a brief and disillusioned dalliance with the communist movement. Shifting his allegiance to democratic socialism… and to the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation… he had, at great personal cost, become a militant conscientious objector to service in World War II. He had been a youth organizer in the first march on Washington movement… in 1941… he had been among the first to promote the Gandhian method of nonviolent resistance in the civil rights struggle… As an adviser to martin Luther King, Jr. … he had played an influential role in developing the modern stage of the black protest movement… he had been a prominent activist in … the campaign against the building and proliferation of thermonuclear weapons.
“For all that, Rustin achieved no significant power in his career. Part of the reason was the breadth and variety of his political involvements. No important black figure of his generation responded to as many causes in which the values of democracy and fair play were at stake. Yet, with rare exceptions, he was a marginal force in the movements he served---though few marginal forces could have made such central contributions to movements led by others.”
He points out, “Rustin spent just over a year… at Wilberforce University… Wilberforce would not later disclose the reason for his premature departure. One might conjecture on the basis of a report by a classmate, who remembered that Bayard fell in love with a son of the college president. If so, nothing was more likely foreshorten his stay at an institution run by fiercely religious clergymen. Rustin’s own explanation was political. He later said that he lost his scholarship when he not only refused to join the ROTC but also organized and led a strike against the poor quality of the meals served in the dormitories. Evidence supports part of his account.” (Pg. 35)
He notes, “as at Wilberforce University, he was the featured vocalist in the Cheyney State Quartet… ‘[Leopold] Stokowski urged me to become more interested in the classics. At that point I decided to drop out of the Cheyney Quartet, so that I might devote more time to the classics. But then something happened.’ It is not exactly clear that that ‘something’ was, but it had to do with a form of misconduct that was severely disappointing … He himself admitted later that he had been ‘naughty,’ that he had ‘misbehaved,’ that ‘in a moment of youthful carelessness’ he had ‘made a mistake.’” (Pg. 38)
He notes, “Rustin shared an alcove with the Young Communist League, many of whose members had enrolled at CCNY partly to elude the problem of joblessness during the Depression and partly to avail themselves of the free tuition for which the college was known… Because of his pigmentation, Rustin was the most striking and conspicuous occupant of the young communists’ alcove at CCNY… Since, as Rustin admitted, he was at CCNY as a phony student, his real purpose being to organize and agitate on behalf of the Young Communist league, much of his reading was confined to radical literature…” (Pg. 53-54)
He recounts, “On January 21, 1953, Rustin arrived in Pasadena, California on a … speaking tour … At the end of his speech, members of the audience milled around… As the [crowd] … dispersed, two young men… invited him to join them at a party nearby… theirs was an invitation Rustin would have been wise to refuse. The next morning’s [newspaper]… reported that ‘Bayard Rustin, a … nationally-known Negro lecturer’ was arrested on a ‘moral charge,’ when the police---investigating a parked car… discovered him in sexual acts with two young men… he was sentenced to sixty days in a county jail. Although Rustin may indeed have been entrapped, as he said later, it was not then a believable claim… If there was a scintilla of truth in Rustin’s claim that he had been entrapped… then why were his two male companions arrested and sentenced to sixty days in jail?... Rustin later explained that he had been confronting and acknowledging his homosexuality ever since his boyhood.” (Pg. 153-155)
He explains that “When [MLK’s book] ‘Stride Toward Freedom’ appeared, in September 1958, Rustin was not mentioned in the acknowledgements… [Rustin explained to a friend] ‘that was my decision, and a very sound one, I believe. Reactionaries in the South have distributed several pieces of literature accusing King of being a communist, and linking me, as a ‘communist agitator,’ with him. I did not feel that he should bear this kind of burden… the first draft of King’s book listed the tremendous help which I had given him and the movement. I mention this only because I would not want you to think that Martin is the kind of person who would take my name out because of fear.’” (Pg. 209-210)
He comments, “for reasons that were not clear, the Reverend Adam Clayton Powell Jr., who represented Harlem in Congress, opposed black protest at the Democrats’ [1960] gathering… early in July, Dr. King… received a startling message from a source close to Powell. Unless King fired Rustin and canceled the proposed demonstration, Powell would announce publicly that King and Rustin were involved in a sexual relationship. King immediately sent word to [A. Philip] Randolph [that] Though Powell’s charge was utterly without substance… it was potentially damaging; therefore it might be wise to cancel the demonstration. Randolph advised Kind to stand fast… King was reassured by Randolph’s firm stand.” (Pg. 229-230)
He continues, “But [King] was ominously silent on the issue of Rustin… a few days later… [he informed] Rustin, through an intermediary, that it would be advisable for him to sever all connections not only with King but also with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. It was a crushing blow to Rustin. He had expected a vote of confidence from [King]… But wishing to spare King and the civil rights leadership an embarrassing public squabble, he quietly resigned.” (Pg. 230)
While the 1963 March on Washington was being organized, “Black female activists resented the predominance of male speakers; no woman had been invited to deliver one of the many major addresses… Perhaps the strongest voce of feminist complaint was Pauli Murray’s … [she] wrote to Randolph a week before the event… her letter to Randolph echoed the earlier view of the feminist Ella Baker that black men did not want women to share the highest level of civil rights leadership.” (Pg. 258-259)
He points out, “Some years after the Vietnam War ended. Rustin would explain… his changed views on the radical pacifism with which he had once been identified. ‘Whereas I used to believe that pacifism had a political value… I no longer believe that. I believe that pacifism is a personal witness to the truth as one sees it. I do not believe that pacifism can be politically organized. I do not believe you can organize a society in which men will refuse to fight, until they have a proven alternative to war… It is ridiculous, in my view, to talk only about peace. There is something which is more valuable to people than peace. And that is freedom. So we have to find a peaceful way to defend democratic freedom.” (Pg. 292)
This book will be “must reading” for anyone interested in Rustin, or the history of the Civil Rights movement.
Jervis Anderson (1932-2000) was a Jamaican-born American biographer and journalist, who was a staff writer for The New Yorker from 1968 to 1998.
He wrote in the first chapter of this 1997 book, “in the fifty years of his engagement with public issues, [Rustin] had been one of the more earnest political intellectuals in American life. Like many young idealists in the late 1930s, he had had a brief and disillusioned dalliance with the communist movement. Shifting his allegiance to democratic socialism… and to the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation… he had, at great personal cost, become a militant conscientious objector to service in World War II. He had been a youth organizer in the first march on Washington movement… in 1941… he had been among the first to promote the Gandhian method of nonviolent resistance in the civil rights struggle… As an adviser to martin Luther King, Jr. … he had played an influential role in developing the modern stage of the black protest movement… he had been a prominent activist in … the campaign against the building and proliferation of thermonuclear weapons.
“For all that, Rustin achieved no significant power in his career. Part of the reason was the breadth and variety of his political involvements. No important black figure of his generation responded to as many causes in which the values of democracy and fair play were at stake. Yet, with rare exceptions, he was a marginal force in the movements he served---though few marginal forces could have made such central contributions to movements led by others.”
He points out, “Rustin spent just over a year… at Wilberforce University… Wilberforce would not later disclose the reason for his premature departure. One might conjecture on the basis of a report by a classmate, who remembered that Bayard fell in love with a son of the college president. If so, nothing was more likely foreshorten his stay at an institution run by fiercely religious clergymen. Rustin’s own explanation was political. He later said that he lost his scholarship when he not only refused to join the ROTC but also organized and led a strike against the poor quality of the meals served in the dormitories. Evidence supports part of his account.” (Pg. 35)
He notes, “as at Wilberforce University, he was the featured vocalist in the Cheyney State Quartet… ‘[Leopold] Stokowski urged me to become more interested in the classics. At that point I decided to drop out of the Cheyney Quartet, so that I might devote more time to the classics. But then something happened.’ It is not exactly clear that that ‘something’ was, but it had to do with a form of misconduct that was severely disappointing … He himself admitted later that he had been ‘naughty,’ that he had ‘misbehaved,’ that ‘in a moment of youthful carelessness’ he had ‘made a mistake.’” (Pg. 38)
He notes, “Rustin shared an alcove with the Young Communist League, many of whose members had enrolled at CCNY partly to elude the problem of joblessness during the Depression and partly to avail themselves of the free tuition for which the college was known… Because of his pigmentation, Rustin was the most striking and conspicuous occupant of the young communists’ alcove at CCNY… Since, as Rustin admitted, he was at CCNY as a phony student, his real purpose being to organize and agitate on behalf of the Young Communist league, much of his reading was confined to radical literature…” (Pg. 53-54)
He recounts, “On January 21, 1953, Rustin arrived in Pasadena, California on a … speaking tour … At the end of his speech, members of the audience milled around… As the [crowd] … dispersed, two young men… invited him to join them at a party nearby… theirs was an invitation Rustin would have been wise to refuse. The next morning’s [newspaper]… reported that ‘Bayard Rustin, a … nationally-known Negro lecturer’ was arrested on a ‘moral charge,’ when the police---investigating a parked car… discovered him in sexual acts with two young men… he was sentenced to sixty days in a county jail. Although Rustin may indeed have been entrapped, as he said later, it was not then a believable claim… If there was a scintilla of truth in Rustin’s claim that he had been entrapped… then why were his two male companions arrested and sentenced to sixty days in jail?... Rustin later explained that he had been confronting and acknowledging his homosexuality ever since his boyhood.” (Pg. 153-155)
He explains that “When [MLK’s book] ‘Stride Toward Freedom’ appeared, in September 1958, Rustin was not mentioned in the acknowledgements… [Rustin explained to a friend] ‘that was my decision, and a very sound one, I believe. Reactionaries in the South have distributed several pieces of literature accusing King of being a communist, and linking me, as a ‘communist agitator,’ with him. I did not feel that he should bear this kind of burden… the first draft of King’s book listed the tremendous help which I had given him and the movement. I mention this only because I would not want you to think that Martin is the kind of person who would take my name out because of fear.’” (Pg. 209-210)
He comments, “for reasons that were not clear, the Reverend Adam Clayton Powell Jr., who represented Harlem in Congress, opposed black protest at the Democrats’ [1960] gathering… early in July, Dr. King… received a startling message from a source close to Powell. Unless King fired Rustin and canceled the proposed demonstration, Powell would announce publicly that King and Rustin were involved in a sexual relationship. King immediately sent word to [A. Philip] Randolph [that] Though Powell’s charge was utterly without substance… it was potentially damaging; therefore it might be wise to cancel the demonstration. Randolph advised Kind to stand fast… King was reassured by Randolph’s firm stand.” (Pg. 229-230)
He continues, “But [King] was ominously silent on the issue of Rustin… a few days later… [he informed] Rustin, through an intermediary, that it would be advisable for him to sever all connections not only with King but also with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. It was a crushing blow to Rustin. He had expected a vote of confidence from [King]… But wishing to spare King and the civil rights leadership an embarrassing public squabble, he quietly resigned.” (Pg. 230)
While the 1963 March on Washington was being organized, “Black female activists resented the predominance of male speakers; no woman had been invited to deliver one of the many major addresses… Perhaps the strongest voce of feminist complaint was Pauli Murray’s … [she] wrote to Randolph a week before the event… her letter to Randolph echoed the earlier view of the feminist Ella Baker that black men did not want women to share the highest level of civil rights leadership.” (Pg. 258-259)
He points out, “Some years after the Vietnam War ended. Rustin would explain… his changed views on the radical pacifism with which he had once been identified. ‘Whereas I used to believe that pacifism had a political value… I no longer believe that. I believe that pacifism is a personal witness to the truth as one sees it. I do not believe that pacifism can be politically organized. I do not believe you can organize a society in which men will refuse to fight, until they have a proven alternative to war… It is ridiculous, in my view, to talk only about peace. There is something which is more valuable to people than peace. And that is freedom. So we have to find a peaceful way to defend democratic freedom.” (Pg. 292)
This book will be “must reading” for anyone interested in Rustin, or the history of the Civil Rights movement.
September 11, 2019
This book gave me a profound respect and admiration for Bayard Rustin, an intellectual man, a Renaissance man of many talents, who devoted his life to the causes he believed—pacifism, democratic socialism (after a brief time with the Communists in the 390s), and civil rights. He planned and orchestrated the March on Washington, and provided great counsel to MLK Jr. and many other civil rights leaders. He remained committed to his beliefs during the turbulent times of the late 60s and early 70s, when so many went to extremes. This book addresses the effect that being gay had on his career.
The one criticism that I have of this book is that it dealt very little with Rustin’s personal life, particularly his great friendship with the Gilmores and the partner of his last decade of his life, Walter Naegle.
The one criticism that I have of this book is that it dealt very little with Rustin’s personal life, particularly his great friendship with the Gilmores and the partner of his last decade of his life, Walter Naegle.
December 13, 2020
This is a biography of activist who is often overshadowed by more well known characters. He was raised by a mother who instilled Quaker beliefs in him. His parents turned out to be his grandparents. He was the child of the daughter of who he thought to be his parents.
Bayard was pacifist who went to jail as a conscientious objector during WW II. He was involved in the Fellowship of Reconciliation with A J Muste from an early age. He was active in various pacifist groups. From this activism, he moved into the area of civil rights. He helped Matin Luther King, Jr establish the SCLC. He served as a member of King’s inner circle of advisors. His major achievement was the planning of the March on Washington in 1963.
He was a field director for many civil rights and pacifist groups. His skills in organizing and speaking were sought after by many social activist groups. His profile was was tarnished by an arrest for homosexual activity in California. He was also targeted by the FBI as a Communist.
As the civil rights movement became more militant and centered on Black Power, his influence was diminished. He was a strong supporter of interracial cooperation and his belief in dismantling of systematic racism. His later life was spent in causes to fight for social justice in Africa, Asia and other third world countries. He was criticized for his strong advocacy of Israel by many Black activists.
His life was a constant struggle for social and economic justice for all peoples.
Bayard was pacifist who went to jail as a conscientious objector during WW II. He was involved in the Fellowship of Reconciliation with A J Muste from an early age. He was active in various pacifist groups. From this activism, he moved into the area of civil rights. He helped Matin Luther King, Jr establish the SCLC. He served as a member of King’s inner circle of advisors. His major achievement was the planning of the March on Washington in 1963.
He was a field director for many civil rights and pacifist groups. His skills in organizing and speaking were sought after by many social activist groups. His profile was was tarnished by an arrest for homosexual activity in California. He was also targeted by the FBI as a Communist.
As the civil rights movement became more militant and centered on Black Power, his influence was diminished. He was a strong supporter of interracial cooperation and his belief in dismantling of systematic racism. His later life was spent in causes to fight for social justice in Africa, Asia and other third world countries. He was criticized for his strong advocacy of Israel by many Black activists.
His life was a constant struggle for social and economic justice for all peoples.
October 16, 2018
Although I am a big fan of Rustin I'm not a big fan of this biography. It's written by someone who is too deeply emersed in the scene, who thinks paragraphs of names are interesting and who assumes knowledge of people and events that someone who doesn't know the civil rights movement well will not have.
More damnimgly I don't really feel like I have a good handle on the man. His first political actions come out of nowhere and his romantic life is never touched on (although his sex life gets a few mentions).
In the last quarter of the book the author gives up on the idea of a chronology and just discusses Rustin's attitude towards topics.
A bit of a disappointing chore especially considering how fascinating Rustin is, looking forward to a better biography coming out one day
More damnimgly I don't really feel like I have a good handle on the man. His first political actions come out of nowhere and his romantic life is never touched on (although his sex life gets a few mentions).
In the last quarter of the book the author gives up on the idea of a chronology and just discusses Rustin's attitude towards topics.
A bit of a disappointing chore especially considering how fascinating Rustin is, looking forward to a better biography coming out one day
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 16, 2023
This book was a slow read because the author was very careful to include all the dates, and contacts of all of the important work that Bayard Rustin did. This book provided me with understanding and appreciation of all that Rustin accomplished. He was a brilliant strategist, and also an outstanding tactician who was almost totally responsible for the March on Washington. His commitment to a pacifist approach was crucial to creating success. His ultimate drive for the importance of building coalitions would have seriously improved the impact of the civil rights movement.
I now appreciate the fact that one of the high schools in West Chester was named in his honor.
I now appreciate the fact that one of the high schools in West Chester was named in his honor.
December 27, 2023
This book was beautiful it was nice knowing about all the things he did for the Peace movement and MLK we don't hear about him much as we hear about other leaders I'm glad his story was told
April 14, 2024
Personal look at Rustin's life
September 21, 2015
Bayard Rustin was one of the best nonviolent organizers of the entire civil rights movement, bar none. He was brilliantly schooled in Gandhian nonviolence. He knew how to do it. He was a listener and a strategist. Whatever he was involved in, happened. Rustin was a gay man, and this was used against him often, so he usually stood in the background of many events that were his shining lights. This is a good book about him as a public person. In his later years, he did become a spokesperson for gay and lesbian rights.
July 7, 2013
At long last, I've found the hero I've been seeking. "Rachlin remembered a church garden party, attended by 'nice old ladies and gentleman,' at which Rustin, 'taking one look at those nice people,' launched joyously into a speech about revolution. 'I couldn't believe my ears,' Rachlin said later. 'I think Bayard had recently heard a speech in Philadelphia espousing the Trotskyite point of view and decided to try that stuff on the old folks. He nearly scared them out of their wits. But it was really one of the antics he loved to play on people.'"
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March 3, 2016Terrific book detailing the civil rights movement and the part Rustin played in it. A most extraordinary person, Bayard Rustin was in the background of the fight against war, against the development of thermonuclear weapons, and played an influential role in Martin Luther King's nonviolent civil rights protests. He was a troubleshooter, an itinerant strategist, tactician and organizer, never wanting power itself. I enjoyed looking at recent history through the lens of his life.
May 19, 2013
This biography was better than I had been led to believe. Many people I respect think John D'Emilio's Lost Prophet to be superior. But Anderson does a fine job except the analysis is too brief in the last chapters.
June 14, 2013
excellent
January 23, 2016
Not the most thrilling read ever, but damn what a story. Bayard Rustin lived an incredible life. A behind the scenes leader and intellectual of the highest degree.
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