This is an e-mail I got from a friend:
Hi friends,
I think this film on Bayard Rustin is worth seeing, and it especially timely as many of us will be in Washington on MLK weekend. If you're around on Monday night i recommend it. If you miss it and want to see it I can probably get you a copy, or if you would like to show it in your community or school. There is a wealth of information as well as contacts at www.rustin.org.
Peace and action,
ElspethThe film "Brother Outsider: The life of Bayard Rustin" will be on PBS this Monday January 20th, Martin Luther King Day, at 10pm (or check local listings).
The film is an hour long documentary about Bayard Rustin - most known for organizing the March on Washington.
A Biography of Rustin by Walter Naegle:
A master strategist and tireless activist, Bayard Rustin is best remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, one of the largest nonviolent protests ever held in the United States. He brought Gandhi’s protest techniques to the American civil rights movement, and helped mold Martin Luther King, Jr. into an international symbol of peace and nonviolence. Despite these achievements, Rustin was silenced, threatened, arrested , imprisoned and fired from important leadership positions, largely BROTHER OUTSIDER presents an hour-long documentary portrait intended for national PBS broadcast, focusing on Rustin’s activism for peace, racial equality, economic justice and human rights.
Today, the United States is still struggling with many of the issues Bayard Rustin sought to change during his long, illustrious career. His focus on civil and economic rights and his belief in peace, human rights and the dignity of all people remain as relevant today as they were in the1950s and 60s.Rustin’s biography is particularly important for lesbian and gay Americans, highlighting the major contributions of a gay man to ending official segregation in America. Rustin stands at the confluence of the great struggles for civil, legal and human rights by African-Americans and lesbian and gay Americans. In a nation still torn by racial hatred and violence, bigotry against homosexuals, and extraordinary divides between rich and poor, his eloquent voice is needed today.
In February 1956, when Bayard Rustin arrived in Montgomery to assist with the nascent bus boycott, Martin Luther King, Jr. had not personally embraced nonviolence. In fact, there were guns inside King’s house, and armed guards posted at his doors. Rustin persuaded boycott leaders to adopt complete nonviolence, teaching them Gandhian nonviolent direct protest. Apart from his career as an activist, Rustin the man was also fun-loving, mischievous, artistic, gifted with a fine singing voice, and known as anart collector who sometimes found museum-quality pieces in New YorkCity trash. Historian John D’Emilio calls Rustin the "lost prophet" of the civil rights movement.
Comments
indeed, i put bayard rustin in my book for the very reason that no one has heard of him, yet had it not been for huim, MLK might never have learned of gandhis nonviolent resistance, and almost assuredly would not have delivered the I Have a Dream speech. So set was J. Edgar Hoover on discrediting MLK that he has his spooks shadow Rustin and King until they got a photo of Rustin sitting on the edge of MLK's bathtub while the Reverend bathed, the two briefing each other on plans for the March on Washington. The photo was leaked to all the major press with insinuations that King was gay. No one bit. And King was subsequently encouraged to turn on Rustin because Rustin was seen as a weak link. That MLK refused, sometimes at the cost of friendships, is a hell of a testament.