• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

• Previous
• Next

1. black
2. grey
3. blue
4. red
5. brown
6. white

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

DemocracyDesireMean

Popular Authors

Marilyn Monroe Paulo Coelho Abraham Lincoln C. S. Lewis Khalil Gibran Charlie Chaplin Gautama Buddha Isaac Newton

| Next

More Bayard Rustin Quotes

• 

  The proof that one truly believes is in action.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  ActionBelieveProof
• 

  Twenty-five, 30 years ago, the barometer of human rights in the United States were black people. That is no longer true. The barometer for judging the character of people in regard to human rights is now those who consider themselves gay, homosexual, lesbian.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  CharacterGayRights
• 

  We are all one – and if we don’t know it, we will learn it the hard way.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  HardKnowsOneWay
• 

  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
• 

  I believe in social dislocation and creative trouble.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  BelieveCreativeTrouble
• 

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

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  BlackGayPeople
• 

  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
• 

  There are three ways in which one can deal with an injustice. (a) One can accept it without protest. (b) On can seek to avoid it. (c) One can resist the injustice non-violently. To accept it is to perpetuate it.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  AcceptInjusticeProtestSeekViolentWay
• 

  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
• 

  I am a Quaker. And as everyone knows, Quakers, for 300 years, have, on conscientious ground, been against participating in war. I was sentenced to three years in federal prison because I could not religiously and conscientiously accept killing my fellow man.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  MenWarYears
• 

  We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  CommunityPeaceUbuntu
• 

  I don’t want to seem intolerant to them and I think we have to say that to them with a great deal of affection, but remaining in the closet is the other side of the prejudice against gays. Because until you challenge it, you are not playing an active role in fighting it.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  DealIntolerantPrejudiceRemainingThink
• 

  There is a strong moralistic strain in the civil rights movement that would remind us that power corrupts, forgetting that the absence of power also corrupts.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  MovementRightsStrong
• 

  I am an opponent of war and of war preparations and an opponent of universal military training and conscription; but entirely apart from that issue, I hold that segregation in any part of the body politic is an act of slavery and an act of war.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  IssuesMilitaryWar
• 

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

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  BelieveMarriedMovement
• 

  The new ‘niggers’ are gays. It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change. The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  BarometerChangeNiggerSocialVulnerable