Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Organizing Weekend



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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Organizing Week (January 19-22, 2010)

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.

In February 1956, when Bayard Rustin arrived in Montgomery to assist with the 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.

In addition to employing non-violent practices from Ghandi, Rustin also worked on the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and debated with such leaders as Malcom X and Adam Clayton Powell Jr.

Despite these achievements, Rustin was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned and fired from important leadership positions, largely because he was an openly gay man. Therefore Rustin’s biography is particularly important for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) 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 people of color and LGBT Americans. In a nation still torn by racial hatred and violence, bigotry against LGBT, and extraordinary divides between rich and poor, his eloquent voice is needed today.

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 the 1950s and 60s.

Historian John D’Emilio calls Rustin the "lost prophet" of the civil rights movement. But his voice and teachings don’t have to be lost. Find out what you can do to remember Bayard Rustin and continue to organize for safer schools.