• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

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 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
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  People will never fight for your freedom if you have not given evidence that you are prepared to fight for it yourself.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  FightingGivenPeople
• 

  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
• 

  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
• 

  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 an individual is protesting society’s refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  AcknowledgeDignitySociety
• 

  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
• 

  The organizers and perpetuators of segregation are as much the enemy of America as any foreign invader.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  CountryEnemySegregation
• 

  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
• 

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

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  CommunityPeaceUbuntu
• 

  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 there are certain types of movements which cannot be married.

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  BelieveMarriedMovement
• 

  The only weapon we have is our bodies, and we need to tuck them in places so wheels don’t turn

  BAYARD RUSTIN
  BodyNeedsWeapon