WB 333 - Bayard Rustin
“And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr. August 28, 1963, Washington, D.C.
Baber ident 300
I wonder if we are now far enough into the period of protests over George Floyd’s death that the public’s interest begins to wane. Are we looking for new and different headlines now? Is the protest that Black Lives Matter about to fizzle out for whatever new thing gets sensationalized on the news? Have we maxed out on compassion fatigue and become desensitized to abuse all over again? Yet as empathy gives way to apathy, the need for change remains. The difficulties seem insurmountable, and there’s still enough to distract us that many of us have the option to opt out.
I’ve recently been inspired by Civil Rights activist and openly gay African-American man, Bayard Rustin (1912-1987). One of my eighth grade youth listed him as one of her heroes, and I had to learn about him. Growing up Quaker in West Pennsylvania, Rustin was ingrained with a Christian worldview of pacifism. Rustin said his Quaker roots “were based on the concept of a single human family and the belief that all members of that family are equal.” As an adult, he travelled to India to learn more directly about Ghandi’s ideas around non-violence. It was Rustin who brought this concept to Martin Luther King, Jr.
Rustin was arrested multiple times in his life: for being a conscientious objector and avoiding the draft, for a bus sit in, for open homosexuality. His open homosexuality meant he was regularly shuffled into the shadows of the Civil Rights movement so the opposition couldn’t use him to discredit King or other civil rights endeavors. But for Rustin, being open about all of who he was was imperative to the cause of real civil rights.
“It occurred to me shortly after that that [referring to his experience sitting on the white side of the bus] it was an absolute necessity for me to declare homosexuality, because if I didn’t I was a part of the prejudice… “I was aiding and abetting the prejudice that was a part of the effort to destroy me.”
Rustin was a master organizer. His influence on King’s commitment to Direct Non-Violence can not be understated. Non-violence it not just a commitment to do no harm, it is a willingness to expose injustice by intentionally disrupting and inconveniencing life as usual. It is a commitment to take actions that release captives from exploitation. For Ghandi, the charkha (spinning wheel) was the symbol of this freedom. Ghandi encouraged his fellow countrymen to boycott British material goods by using the traditional spinning wheel to create their own clothing, setting them free from British exploitation, and providing economic self-reliance. Rustin and King took this symbolism to the streets of America, organizing peaceful protest to demand meaningful change in America.
Rustin is perhaps most famous for his work with Philip Randolph organizing the iconic March on Washington, where a quarter of a million people peacefully gathered at the Lincoln Memorial, culminating in MLK’s “I Have A Dream” speech. The commitment to pacifism and non-violence meant Rustin thought of everything, even how many bathrooms needed to be available for a crowd this size. It’s hard to control a mass of people, so Rustin worked diligently to motivate the peaceful intentions of anyone who would show.
Angelic Troublemakers
For my icon of Bayard Rustin, I gave him Gandhi’s charkha for a halo, and the symbol of the Quakers for his lapel pin. Bayard reminds me that it is not enough to say “I’m a pacifist” or to simply make a social media post objecting to the wrongs of our day. To be an “angelic troublemaker” is to actively use your life and your body to do things differently, to disrupt the status quo by the way you spend your time and resources. Protests really do make a difference. Giving financially to organizations that make meaningful change really makes a difference. Intentionally and lovingly challenging your friends and family really makes a difference if you do it in the spirit of recognizing the humanity of the person you’re talking to.
I close with Rustin’s own words: “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.” May we be so willing to follow the Spirit of Christ into this world to renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of our sin.