Details

ISBN-10: 1479818496
ISBN-13: 9781479818495
Publisher: New York University Press
Publish Date: 09/26/2023
Dimensions: 9.10" L, 6.00" W, 1.20" H

Bayard Rustin: A Legacy of Protest and Politics

Foreword by: Clayborne Carson

Hardcover

Price: $27.95

Overview

2024 Outstanding Academic Title, given by Choice Reviews

Celebrates the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin, the civil rights leader behind the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

While we can all recall images of Martin Luther King Jr. giving his “I Have a Dream” speech in front of a massive crowd at Lincoln Memorial, few of us remember the man who organized this watershed nonviolent protest in eight short weeks: Bayard Rustin.

This was far from Rustin’s first foray into the fight for civil rights. As a world-traveling pacifist, he brought Gandhi’s protest techniques to the forefront of US civil rights demonstrations, helped build the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led the fight for economic justice, and played a deeply influential role in the life of Dr. King by helping to mold him into an international symbol of nonviolent resistance. Rustin’s legacy touches many areas of contemporary life–from civil resistance to violent uprisings, democracy to socialism, and criminal justice reform to war resistance.

Despite these achievements, Rustin was often relegated to the background. He was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned, and fired from important leadership positions, largely because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era. With expansive, searching, and sometimes critical essays from a range of esteemed writers–including Rustin’s own partner, Walter Naegle–this volume draws a full picture of Bayard Rustin: a gay, pacifist, socialist political radical who changed the course of US history and set a precedent for future civil rights activism, from LGBTQ+ Pride to Black Lives Matter.

  • Michael G. Long is the author or editor of numerous books on civil rights, religion, and politics, including We the Resistance: Documenting A History of Nonviolent Protest in the United States; Race Man: Selected Works of Julian Bond; I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin's Life in Letters; Marshalling Justice: The Early Civil Rights Letters of Thurgood Marshall; and First Class Citizenship: The Civil Rights Letters of Jackie Robinson. Long has written for the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, ESPN's The Undefeated, and USA Today, and his work has been featured or reviewed in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Mother Jones, and many others. Long has spoken at Fenway Park, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, and the National Archives, and he has appeared on MSNBC, PBS, C-SPAN, and National Public Radio.

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Reviews
"Bayard Rustin contained multitudes. Many years ago I had the experience of listening to him deliver a part lecture, part performance revealing several of his identities that included pacifist, socialist, gay, organizer, ghost writer, advisor, leader, coalition builder, internationalist, anti-colonialist, singer, Quaker and African American. Mike Long enlists a diverse group of scholars, activists, and writers in an excellent attempt to capture them for those who could not witness them personally."– "Charles P. Henry, author of Racial Imagination and the American Dream"
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Details

ISBN-10: 1479818496
ISBN-13: 9781479818495
Publisher: New York University Press
Publish Date: 09/26/2023
Dimensions: 9.10" L, 6.00" W, 1.20" H
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