The organizers and perpetuators of segregation are as much the enemy of America as any foreign invader.
BAYARD RUSTINTo be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true.
More Bayard Rustin Quotes
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Martin Luther King, with whom I worked very closely, became very distressed when a number of the ministers working for him wanted him to dismiss me from his staff because of my homosexuality.
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Black gay activists should try to build coalitions of people for the elimination of all injustice.
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Every gay who is in the closet is ultimately a threat to the freedom of gays.
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I would say that the black newspapers have played it very straight. If I was attacked they simply published that I was attacked.
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Both morally and practically, segregation is to me a basic injustice. Since I believe it to be so, I must attempt to remove it.
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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.
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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.
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Every indifference to prejudice is suicide because, if I don’t fight all bigotry, bigotry itself will be strengthened and, sooner or later, it will return on me.
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Conscription for war is inconsistent with freedom of conscience, which is not merely the right to believe but to act on the degree of truth that one receives, to follow a vocation which is God-inspired and God-directed.
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Looking back at his career, Mr. Rustin, a Quaker, once wrote: ‘The principal factors which influenced my life are 1) nonviolent tactics; 2) constitutional means; 3) democratic procedures; 4) respect for human personality; 5) a belief that all people are one.’
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The real radical is that person who has a vision of equality and is willing to do those things that will bring reality closer to that vision. . .
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People will never fight for your freedom if you have not given evidence that you are prepared to fight for it yourself.
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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.
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Surely, I must at all times attempt to obey the law of the state. But when the will of God and the will of the state conflict, I am compelled to follow the will of God.
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We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.
BAYARD RUSTIN