BAYARD RUSTIN AND THE WORKERS CIRCLE
Photo from the July 1970 edition of The Call
“He called for the most vigorous possible activity in political life for the economic reforms that have always been identified with the socialist movement.”
Bayard Rustin was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania in 1912. He and his eleven siblings were raised by his grandparents. He was raised a Quaker which contributed to his lifelong belief in non-violence. During his childhood, his grandmother was active in the NAACP and Black leaders, including W.E.B. Du Bois, visited his home while he was growing up.
Rustin was an instrumental leader in the Civil Rights Movement. He was a co-founder of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and led training on nonviolent direct actions. During World War Two, he was imprisoned for being a conscientious objector. In 1947, he was arrested as part of CORE’s Journey of Reconciliation. The Journey of Reconciliation was a purposeful testing of the Supreme Court ruling that outlawed segregation on interstate travel. The Journey of Reconciliation served as a blueprint for the Freedom Rides in 1961.
During the Montgomery Bus Boycott, he served as a key advisor of Martin Luther King, Jr. He visited Montgomery in early 1956 and wrote of his experience, “As I watched the people walk away, I had a feeling that no force on earth could stop this movement. It has all the elements to touch the hearts of men.” Rustin also helped to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Rustin served as deputy director of the March on Washington. Because of his sexuality (Rustin was gay), he was largely kept behind the scenes, but he was instrumental in organizing this event where over 200,000 people converged on the nation’s capital.
The Workers Circle, which had a long and strong relationship with pioneering labor and civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph, invited Rustin to speak at our 1970 convention. At the time of the convention, Rustin served as the executive secretary of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, an organization for Black trade unionists fighting for economic justice and racial equality. During his convention speech, he advocated for economic solutions, such as increased job opportunities and fairer taxation, to address the rampant inequality in society.
A giant in civil rights grassroots organizing, Bayard Rustin has been understudied and under-represented in public discourse about the civil rights movement. There is a new Netflix movie, Rustin, that is a long overdue popular examination of the pivotal role Bayard Rustin played in advancing civil rights, economic rights, and our democracy itself. And fun fact: you may know that the Workers Circle has a strong partnership with Black Voters Matter – LaTosha Brown, BVM co-founder, has a cameo. She’s in the blue suit behind Rustin at the charged NAACP with a notepad. Best shot is right around the 45m mark.
Sources:
“Bayard Rustin.” AFL-CIO. https://aflcio.org/about/history/labor-history-people/bayard-rustin
“Rustin, Bayard.” Stanford: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/rustin-bayard
“The Call.” New York: The Workers Circle. (July 1970).