By Sean P. McKelvey
With
February comes Black History Month. While I personally believe that
“Black History” is indeed merely American history and am
appalled that it seems to only get one out of twelve months to
not only be focused on but acknowledged at all, since that’s how it
is understood and presented in our cultural lexicon. Here is my
(makes me uncomfortable to even say this) contribution. I will be
writing a short series of articles, throughout the month that each
cover a different leader of the black community. That is what I
consider, more obscure or tragically unheard of black leaders, for
their considerable and great contributions to the struggle for
equality in America.
My first profile is of Bayard Rustin; arguably just as important as
MLK in regards to the Civil Rights movement, yet suspiciously absent
from history. There is a reason we don’t know Rustin’s name as we
know MLK’s or Malcolm X’s. Rustin was an advocate for socialist
democracy, and was also openly gay; at a time when just one of those
could literally land you in jail. In fact, Rustin had actually been
arrested and convicted of “sex perversion,” in Pasadena, CA in
1953 (“sex perversion,” was what California called, even
consensual, same-sex relations). He served 60 days in jail for the
conviction. This conviction would haunt him throughout his life, and
was used by the racist opposition to his causes in an attempt to
discredit him and his work.
Rustin
was an incredibly accomplished Civil Rights leader, that operated
mainly in the shadows for fear of his sexuality and political
affiliations being used to discredit him and distract and detract
from his causes. He helped organize and form the Journey of
Reconciliation in 1947, which was the first of the Freedom Rides. He
was arrested and served 22 days on a chain-gang in North Carolina for
his participation in that. In 1948, he traveled to India to learn
techniques of non-violent civil resistance, directly from the
Gandhian movement that basically created those concepts and
practices. In 1951 he formed the Committee to Support South African
Resistance (which later, became the American Committee on Africa).
Rustin would later use what he’d learned in India, to teach Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. the ways of non-violent resistance, which as
we all know was one of the central tenets of King’s movement.
He
served as an unidentified member of the American Friends Service
Committee’s task force to write “Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker
Search for an Alternative to Violence” in 1955. That essay was one
of the most influential and commented upon expressions of pacifism in
the United States. He remained anonymous for fear that his sexuality
would be used by critics to invalidate the essay. Although he was
open about his sexuality; he knew it would be something critics and
opponents could latch onto and use to their advantage to discredit
and demonize him and anything he lent his name to so, he often put
the cause ahead of himself. That is incredibly admirable, and makes
him a real American hero as far as I’m concerned.
His
list of accomplishments is staggering; too long to even list here in
all honesty, so I will close out my highlights of that list with what
I believe to be his most recognizable and grandest achievement: he
was the main organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and
Freedom in August, 1963. He was credited as the deputy to A. Philip
Randolph for the March, but he did most of the planning for it. Other
civil rights leaders didn’t want Rustin to be publicly recognized,
so the skeletons in his closet that were always dug out and used
against him by opposition leaders could not be used to discredit the
movement because it was too important. Although, he wasn’t credited
as he should have been by his fellow civil rights leaders; he still
received credit as a “leader of the march,” because he was
featured with A. Philip Randolph on the cover of Life Magazine, and
in the story was given the credit he was due.
One
last accomplishment I nearly forgot to mention that is crucial to
acknowledge: he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which
is the highest honor one can receive in our country, and clearly well
deserved in his case. I only briefly summarized his life, career and
achievements. Rustin did, much, much more over the course of his
life; if this story has interested you, definitely look him up and
witness the broad legacy of this often forgotten national treasure.
Bayard
Rustin is one of many unsung American heroes. There are far too many
men and women throughout American history that are either left out of
or even erased from the history books, merely because something about
who they are could be viewed as problematic. I believe it’s our
patriotic duty to give these people the credit and acknowledgement
they so deserved yet never widely received when it was certainly due.
Comments
Post a Comment