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If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end.

Bayard Rustin

Related Topics

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More Bayard Rustin Quotes

• 

  if I was defended they simply said I had been defended. But I don’t think they have taken any effort at maligning me or maligning gays or making any effort to give to people anything that wasn’t news.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  AnythingDefendEffortSimply
• 

  The Journey of Reconciliation was organized not only to devise techniques for eliminating Jim Crow in travel, but also as a training ground for similar peaceful projects against discrimination in such major areas as employment and in the armed services.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  CrowJourneyPeaceful
• 

  Every gay who is in the closet is ultimately a threat to the freedom of gays.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  FightingGayThinking
• 

  Gays are beginning to realize what blacks learned long ago: Unless you are out here fighting for yourself then nobody else will help you. I think the gay community has a moral obligation to continue the fight.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  FightingGayThinking
• 

  If I do not fight bigotry wherever it is, bigotry is thereby strengthened. And to the degree that it is strengthened, it will, thereby, have the power to turn on me.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  DegreeFightingTurn
• 

  Since Israel is a democratic state surrounded by essentially undemocratic states which have sworn her destruction, those interested in democracy everywhere must support Israel’s existence.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  CountryDemocracySupport
• 

  My activism did not spring from being black…The racial injustice that was present in this country during my youth was a challenge to my belief in the oneness of the human family.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  CountryOnenessSpring
• 

  You have to join every other movement for the freedom of people.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  GayRightsThinking
• 

  Bigotrys birthplace is the sinister back room of the mind where plots and schemes are hatched for the persecution and oppression of other human beings.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  BirthMindPlacePlot
• 

  The moral man is he who is opposed to injustice per se, opposed to injustice wherever he finds it; the moral man looks for injustice first of all in himself.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  FirstsLooksMen
• 

  I would say that the black newspapers have played it very straight. If I was attacked they simply published that I was attacked.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  AttackNewspaperPlayPublishStraight
• 

  Loving your enemy is manifest in putting your arms not around the man but around the social situation, to take power from those who misuse it at which point they can become human too.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  HumanManifestSituationSocial
• 

  God does not require us to achieve any of the good tasks that humanity must pursue. What God requires of us is that we not stop trying.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  HumanityPeaceUbuntu
• 

  When I say I love Eastland, it sounds preposterous a man who brutalizes people. But you love him or you wouldn’t be here. You’re going to Mississippi to create social change and you love Eastland in your desire to create conditions which will redeem his children.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  ChildrenInspirationalLoveMen
• 

  I believe there are certain types of movements which cannot be married.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  BelieveMarriedMovement
• 

  Black gay activists should try to build coalitions of people for the elimination of all injustice.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  BlackGayPeople