My youngest grandson is in second grade. His class was studying Black History, and each student was asked to make a project. He chose to create a poster about civil rights leader Bayard Rustin. I was thrilled to see his finished project, because it was not only well done, but because I knew Bayard Rustin and I started thinking about him. He was a good friend of my then-husband and me.
We got to know him in the mid-1960s. He was the bravest man I ever met. He was arrested many times for his pacifism and his civil rights activities. He was beaten many times by counter-demonstrators. He dedicated his life to standing up for others. He served prison time as a conscientious objector during World War II because he refused to fight. He told us that he realized later that he was wrong because he did not know then what a monster Hitler was.
He was very close to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and was the chief organizer for the March on Washington in 1963. Bayard was a strategist and a thinker, in addition to being a fearless activist. He was a brilliant speaker and writer.
Soon after we became friendly with him, in the late 1960s, he asked if he could give a concert in our new apartment on Park Avenue and 85th Street in Manhattan as a fundraiser for the Young People Socialists League. We did not yet have any furniture other than beds and a few chairs, so we said of course. Bayard gave an a cappella concert for about 50 members of YPSL. At the time, I thought to myself that the building had never before had so many black people and Socialists at one time in its history (or probably ever). I learned that night that years earlier, Bayard used to sing with Leadbelly.
I recall a speech that Bayard gave about the Kerner Commission report when it came out. He was a great proponent of creating economic opportunity (jobs with good wages) for blacks. He proposed a Marshall Plan for economic development of black Americans so that everyone would have a decent standard of living. He said that we could expend all our energies on things that didn’t make a difference, or actually fund the changes that would make a huge difference. We didn’t.
While the Vietnam War (which he opposed) was still raging, many Vietnamese people fled to Thailand and were living in refugee camps. Bayard organized a planeload of aid, delivered by himself and other civil rights leaders, to fly to the camps. He invited my 15-year-old son to join them. I was a nervous mother and did not want to put his life in danger and I didn’t let him go. I have since regretted that caution, but knowing how fiercely protective I was of my children, I would probably say no again.
Bayard was deeply devoted to the labor movement. He helped to found the A. Philip Randolph Institute, which worked closely with the labor movement to advance civil rights and equal treatment of black and white workers. Bayard knew that the labor movement was vital to the struggle for equality because black workers who unionized were assured good wages, healthcare, and a pension, and had a voice in working conditions. He always referred to his mentor as “Mr. Randolph.”
One of my favorite Bayard stories occurred in Miami (we heard about it later). He was there at a meeting of the AFL-CIO executive council. He went to a nightclub to see Marlene Dietrich perform. He sat at a table in front of the stage. He later described her as “luminous,” wearing a shimmering silver gown. When she finished, he jumped to his feet, and tossed a bouquet of flowers at her feet. He said later, “I love that woman. She told Hitler to go f— himself!”
Bayard was gay and he was not closeted. He dressed elegantly. He wore several exotic rings. We had dinner at his apartment in a union-built cooperative (Penn Station South), and the walls were covered with beautiful pieces of African art that he had collected in his travels. We met his partner, Walter, who adored him.
There is no one quite like Bayard Rustin on the scene today. No one with his courage, his independent intellect and his fierce devotion to equality and principle. I miss him.
A wonderful tribute. He was never given enough recognition for his work with the 1963 March.
Bill, I didn’t want to get into why Bayard never received the recognition he deserved. Rightwing members of Congress vilified him as a homosexual, and they added “Communist” to boot.
Bayard was homosexual and a pacifist, never a Communist.
He often stayed out of the limelight so as not to present a target to his enemies and deflect from the message.
I love this. My knowledge of Rustin is based only on books and you injected a beautiful dose of humanity into it. Thank you.
Bayard Rustin was one of the earliest advocates to understand the importance of class size, which were often huge in Harlem and other high-poverty schools and still remain so. See this excerpt of a speech he gave in 1964 entitled “Negro revolution in 1965”:
The school system of this country is a bad school system for many reasons, but one of the reasons in our large cities, take Harlem for an example, teachers teach three sessions within the regular period. They become cops, they become babysitters, they become nursemaids.
And yet we look at the unemployed Negroes and we say they are without skills. Well, I am here to say that some of the most skillful people in the world are unemployed Negroes. Because they have reared their own children, they have reared two or three generations of white children. And they are skilled with love and affection for children.
Let us, therefore, elevate them to assistant teachers, the state gives them $4,000 a year, they go into the school, and they take from the teacher all of this police work and babysitting work. And the teacher is, then, if we can get many more schools built, if we can get smaller classrooms, I mean a smaller number of children in classrooms, these people can play a very vital role.
See https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2011/02/bayard-rustin-on-importance-of-class.html
This is marvelous, Diane–thanks so much for sharing it. He is a great hero of mine.
Beautiful tribute, Diane. It’s so important for al to know these histories, not for hollow hero worship but to give us all examples of the power of courage and standing up. Thanks!
Amazing story of a very important and incredible life. So glad you got to know him, Diane.
Had you ever crossed paths with Maxwell and Matilde (Midi) Gordon or their son, poet and professor Nick Gordon, in your early life as an activist? They were from the Bronx and very active in the socialist party mid-century. They were/are my ex’s grandparents and father, respectively. Midi was also a poet. They spawned three children who went on to more activism in their work.
And kudos to your grandson for his work on the project.
LG, sorry but I did not know them.
Thank you for that wonderful remembrance of Bayard Rustin. What a powerful figure he was! Paul
Excellent. What a wonderful honor, to have had Bayard Rustin as a friend.
Although not directly related, I hope your grandson will appreciate this as he continues his education:
It just so happens that this was one of those days at school. Tomorrow, all the students in the State of Tennessee in the Junior class take the ACT. All the schools are having motivational events, disrupting learning in such a way as to ruin the entire week, a stat that will never make it to the folks that make policy. So I decided that today was the day to reiterate that history is common stories. As I often do, I decided to relax here i Diane’s spacious living room. What a great story, so personally related.
History is a story. All of the stories that go together to make our story need to be heard. The more and better the stories, the wider the river of democratic engagement. Thanks for this story.
Thanks Diane,
I believe I first met Bayard during the 68 teacher strike at Velma and Norman Hill’s apartment, a magisterial person. I have a cassette of Bayard singing spirituals, his sonorous booming voice and his apartment was a museum of African art.
Bayard was a confidant, advisor and close friend of Al Shanker. I spent an afternoon with Bayard and Al at Yetta and Max Schackmans’. .. an evening that was a window into history, Max was in Mexico City w/ Trotsky.. and, who despised the “Stalinists,” ..the fringes of American politics is fascinating…
My late husband, Penn Kemble, was probably one of the YPSLs at your apartment. I met both Penn and Bayard on a blind date set up by a neighbor’s 17-year old son who belonged to the YPSLs. I had come to the States on a British Universities exchange program, and while I was aghast at the thought of a blind date, I was intrigued by the thought of meeting an American socialist. I entered a world of American political life that I could never have imagined. The “date” was to an AFL-CIO dinner in honor of Solzhenitsyn, where I met Bayard, Al Shanker, Sandra Feldman, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Lane Kirkland and just about everyone I would later become friends with. Bayard was the rare kind of person whom you meet who leaves an indelible imprint on you. The more I got to know him, the more in awe of him I became. The conversation about race in America is long past due. I wish Bayard were around to be a part of it.
Thank you, Diane.
Bayard Rustin was a giant. A Quaker, an intellect and a brilliant organizer.
One of the people who pushed him into the shadows was the scandalous minister Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.–a democrat–who, in a power struggle with MLK threatened to lie to the press about King’s relationship with Rustin. The Boulevard in Harlem named after Powell should be re-named Bayard Rustin Boulevard.
I remember hearing Rustin speak at a Manhattan rally of Welfare Department caseworkers who were striking for better wages and working conditions that would allow them to provide better services to their clients. He railed against the Daily News for its strident editorials against the SSEU. He was always a champion of labor, jobs and decent pay.
As he said: “We are all one. If we don’t know it, we will learn it the hard way.”
Diane
I also knew and worked closely with Bayard for many years.
I first met him as a teenage volunteer during the period when he was functioning as the Chief Organizer of the August 1963 March on Washington. One of my responsibilities was to monitor the progress of approximately 200 buses traveling from Florida, Georgia & South Carolina to Washington.
Subsequently, I worked with Bayard when he was organizing the boycott of the NYC Public Schools. The objective of the boycott, which was supported by thousands of NYC school teachers, was to desegregate the City’s Public Schools.
I also assisted Bayard in preparing the Charter for the Black Americans to Support Israel Committee (BASIC) in the wake of the infamous Zionism is Racism resolution passed by the United Nations in 1975. I also joined him as a member of Black Labor Leaders visiting Israel in 1976.
Subsequently, I collaborated with Bayard on other initiatives intended to improve the lives of the nation’s most historically disadvantaged population segments.
Working with and learning from Bayard was a special experience.
Congratulations to your grandson for selecting such a special person to study.
Bernard. R. Gifford
Another amazing account of this extraordinary life.