1. People
    2.  › 
  2. Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin photo

Bayard Rustin Quotes

Total quotes: 12
“Already, they have begun to do to Gandhi what has been done to Jesus—worship him as an unobtainable ideal. That is the sin of men of goodwill—not really to believe in their own power.”
— Bayard Rustin, Bayard Rustin in His Own Words: "I Must Resist"
Tagged: Gandhi, jesus, Goodwill, Heroes, Hero Worship
“Segregation, separation, according to Jesus, is the basis of continuous violence.”
— Bayard Rustin
Tagged: Segregation, separation, jesus, Violence
“Given the technological revolution, this kind of talk on the part of Negro institutions, merely leads to that atmosphere where Negroes and whites will be fighting in the streets over the few jobs which do exist, or over jobs which do not exist.”
— Bayard Rustin
Tagged: Technological Revolution, Negroes, Jobs, Automation
“Well, I am here to say that some of the most skillful people in the world are unemployed Negroes. Because they have reared their own children, they have reared two or three generations of white children. And they are skilled with love and affection for children.”
— Bayard Rustin
Tagged: Unemployment, Negroes
“[T]he demonstration bore the title ‘March for Jobs and Freedom.’ We realized even then that true freedom and racial equality cannot be achieved within the context of a stagnant economy, unable to provide blacks with permanent, good-paying jobs.”
— Bayard Rustin, Bayard Rustin in His Own Words: "I Must Resist"
Tagged: Jobs, Freedom, Black Americans, Racial Equality
“The most urgently needed national policy is a commitment to full employment. When black unemployment is above 13 percent...we have a major national crisis. When overall unemployment by official statistics remains above seven percent...we have a major national crisis....We need to rededicate ourselves to the original principles of the nation. We must have policies which make it possible for all of our citizens to pursue happiness.”
— Bayard Rustin, Bayard Rustin in His Own Words: "I Must Resist"
Tagged: Full Employment, Unemployment
“I think the movement contributed to this nation a sense of universal freedom. Precisely because women saw our movement in the sixties, stimulated them to want their rights. The fact that students saw the movement of the sixties created a student movement in this country. The fact that the people were against the war in Vietnam, saw us go into the street and win, made it possible for them to have the courage to go into the street and win, and the lesson that I would like to see from this is, that we must now find a way to deal with the problem of full employment, and as surely as we were able to bring about the Civil Rights Act, the voter rights act—the Voting Rights Act, I mean the education act, and the housing act, so is it possible for all of us now to combine our forces in a coalition, including Catholic, Protestant, Jew and labor and blacks and Puerto Ricans and Mexican-Americans and all other minorities, to bring about the one thing that will bring peace internally to the United States. And that is that any man who wants a job, or any woman who wants a job, shall not be left unemployed.”
— Bayard Rustin
Tagged: Civil Rights, Universal Freedom, Catholic, Protestant, Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, Full Employment
“The question invariably arises as to what, in fact, is the nature of the civil rights movement today? And I am one who claims that it is, at once, a movement for integration into the American society, as it now exists, and simultaneously a revolutionary movement. If one were to ask the average Negro what it is he wants, with the exception of Mr. Baldwin and a few other writers who, very often, are not in very close touch with the Negro community themselves, the Negro will say what any minority says if it uses the word integration.”
— Bayard Rustin
Tagged: Civil Rights Movement, negro, James Baldwin, minority, Integration
“For example, I have knowingly sat at the table… and in the front of a bus in the South with white people, aware of the fact that when I did so, I was bringing to the surface a fear in them which was in a sense more profound than if I had struck them, and this is in part due to the fact that if I had struck them, they would have been on familiar ground and able to defend themselves and to strike me back. But the fact that I sat there in a way so that they did not see their way clear to strike me made them more fearful than if I had struck them.”
— Bayard Rustin, Black History Month: A Letter from “I Must Resist” by Bayard Rustin
Tagged: Segregation, Lunch Counter Protests, Busing, Civil Rights Movement
“Today I feel that God motivates me to use my whole being to combat by nonviolent means the ever-growing racial tension in the United States; at the same time the state directs that I shall do its will; which of these dictates can I follow—that of God or that of the state? 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. If I cannot continue in my present vocation, I must resist.”
— Bayard Rustin, Bayard Rustin in His Own Words: "I Must Resist"
Tagged: Racial Tension, God's Will
“[W]e must remember that we cannot hope to achieve democracy and equality in such a way that would destroy the very kind of society which we hope to build. If we desire a society of peace, then we cannot achieve such a society through violence. 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. If we desire a society in which men are brothers, then we must act towards one another with brotherhood. If we can build such a society, then we would have achieved the ultimate goal of human freedom.”
— Bayard Rustin, Bayard Rustin in His Own Words: "I Must Resist"
Tagged: Democracy, Equality, discrimination, Brotherhood, Violence, Freedom
“I think that, in other words, following the election, the major purpose of the civil rights movement are three: Keep in motion and on the streets. Two, broaden the base of the protest by getting many, many more white elements into it. And thirdly, proceed to make demands which are in keeping with full employment for all, work of some kind for all, including redefinition of work, if necessary, including the fact that the technological revolution, while it may do much damage if social attitudes are not correct, that there are yet millions of jobs which can be made available to people.”
— Bayard Rustin
Tagged: Civil Rights Movement, Full Employment
loading next page...