Dear Friends,
 Though less well known than other civil rights leaders, Bayard Rustin played a large role in shaping that movement -- including when he worked at the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Rustin, who would have turned 100 last month, was a radical pacifist and key staffer at both FOR and the War Resisters League. Rustin was a tireless, creative, joy-filled activist who acted as a strategist for many justice struggles, including civil rights for African Americans and LGBT peoples, ending war and nuclear disarmament, and reforming the prison system.
As national organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, he was a skilled practitioner of nonviolent direct action, using it in such contexts as the first Freedom Ride -- the 1947 Journey for Reconciliation held by FOR and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), held 14 years before the 1961 Freedom Rides -- and while in federal prison during World War II.
Share with us: Your stories of Bayard Rustin's impact
In commemoration of the centennial anniversary of Rustin's life, Fellowship magazine is accepting submissions (less than 1,000 words) of essays regarding the impact of Bayard Rustin on the struggles for peace and justice, both historically and today.
Selected submissions will be published in a forthcoming issue of Fellowship or online. Reply to this email or contact editor@forusa.org by April 20 to let us know you'd like to submit an article, and we'll let you know what the timeline is.
Share Bayard's work with your community
 An excellent new book, I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin's Life in Letters, has just been published by City Lights. Edited by Michael G. Long and with a foreword by Julian Bond, I Must Resist features hundreds of Rustin's writings to such figures as Dr. King, A. J. Muste, Desmond Tutu, U.S. presidents from Eisenhower to Reagan, and many more. Ranging from the political to the very personal, the letters provide an in-depth look into a long life of struggle and resistance. It's a must-read!
Purchase the book through FOR's Amazon account and a portion of your purchase will support FOR.
Here is an excerpt from a September 1942 letter from Rustin to FOR's national staff:
"In many parts of this country I have found men completely cut off from a knowledge of pacifism. ... I therefore have a deep concern when I hear many FOR people across this nation say they feel they ought to be still at this time. I believe this is the time to say louder and more frequently than before the truth that war is wrong, stupid, wasteful, and impeding future progress and any possibilities of a just and durable peace..."
 Extending Bayard's tradition
Another new book, Gods, Gays, and Guns: Essays on Religion and the Future of Democracy, by Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou -- FOR Freeman Fellow and founding senior minister of The Freedom Church of New York City -- features a chapter on Bayard Rustin. In a commentary to FOR, Sekou writes:
"Like Rustin, the Fellowship of Reconciliation provided me a space to exercise my own sense of calling. I have attempted to extend the tradition of Rustin -- militant nonviolent direct action that makes links between economic, racial, and queer justice with revolutionary joy and insurgent laughter. Taking a cue from his controversial essay, 'New Niggers are Gays,' I published an essay bearing a similar title, 'Gays are the New Niggers.' I argue based on Rustin's formulation that both communities are at odds with the democracy. Hence, the solidarity of oppression must lead to solidarity in action.
"As wars and rumors of wars continue to haunt the world, the work of FOR in Iran and economic justice in the United States is needed more than ever. No one can be indifferent to FOR's work for peace and justice. For Rustin reminds us all: 'Every indifference to prejudice is suicide because, if I don't fight all bigotry, bigotry itself will be strengthened and, sooner or later, it will return on me.' "
You can also purchase the book directly from FOR for $16 plus shipping and handling.
Two weeks ago, Rev. Sekou kicked off a national book tour in a fabulous public conversation with Dr. Cornel West in New York City. Sekou will preach this coming Sunday at New York's historic Riverside Church, and will hold another dynamic conversation with Dr. Benjamin Barber at The New School on Monday evening. If you are interested in having Sekou speak in your area, contact him directly and reference FOR.
Hosting Bayard Rustin events in your area
Walter Naegle, Rustin's life partner from 1977 until Rustin's death in 1987, has helped to organize nationwide events to recognize and explore the life of Bayard Rustin and the impact of his work.
These include screenings of the documentary film Brother Outsider, multimedia exhibits, and readings of I Must Resist.
Bayard's songs
 Also available from FOR is Bayard Rustin -- The Singer, a unique 26-song audio CD of Rustin singing Elizabethan songs and African-American spirituals. Accompanied by Margaret Davidson on harpsichord and with narration by civil rights leader James Farmer (the first director of CORE), FOR originally produced these as two LP recordings in the 1940s.
Thanks to Walter Naegle, this has been reproduced in a modern format with additional liner notes.
FOR honors the civil rights movement
 Last week, veteran civil rights, anti-war and African liberation activist George Houser paid a special visit to our national headquarters in Nyack, NY. Houser, now 95, worked closely with Bayard Rustin, A. J. Muste, and other FOR 20th century leaders, serving on FOR's staff as a youth secretary and field secretary in the 1940s and '50s. He co-founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) with Rustin and others, and is the only living member of FOR & CORE's 1947 Freedom Ride. Houser also founded the American Committee on Africa (ACOA), and he left FOR's staff to serve as the first executive director of ACOA, returning to the Fellowship in the 1990s as FOR's interim executive director.
Together with his wife Jean, with whom he had traveled from California to New York, George reflected on an extraordinary legacy of justice-centered ministry, sharing stories of collaboration with such luminaries as Rustin, Martin Luther King Jr., A. Philip Randolph, James Farmer, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Kwame Nkrumah, Kenneth Kaunda, Julius Nyerere, and more. In one memorable story, Houser recalled his six-month trip in 1954 throughout much of the African continent, during which British colonial regimes refused him visas due to his renowned racial justice work in the United States.
 As we commemorated the 44th anniversary of the death of Dr. King last week, George joined three other FOR executive directors, shown in the photograph at right: Doug Hostetter (1987-93), Mark Johnson (2007-present), George Houser (1997-98), and Richard Deats (1979-84 and 2000-02). Each peacemaker offered a touching reflection on where they were the day that King died and how they heard the news; they mirrored FOR's work for global justice. Hostetter and Johnson were both conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War, and were living in Vietnam and Lebanon, respectively, doing alternative service in 1968. Houser was in New York City, and heard the news on his car radio. Deats was in the Philippines, serving as a United Methodist missionary and teacher, and remembered helping to organize a chapel service to mourn for Dr. King when the news of his death reached the South Pacific.
We offer thanks to George Houser, Bayard Rustin, and all those who have paved the way of civil and human rights. And we express our gratitude to you, our supporters, for continuing to make this work possible at FOR.
In the struggle for justice,
Mark C. Johnson
Top image: Library of Congress (New York World-Telegram and the Sun), 1964. Public domain. |
