Bayard Rustin and the Socialist Civil Rights Strategy (1955-65)

In 1965, Civil Rights organizer Bayard Rustin published an article in Commentary entitled, “From Protest to Politics.” He declared, “what began as a protest movement is being challenged to translate itself into a political movement.”1 Rustin’s call for political action capped off a decade-long grassroots struggle for “Jobs and Freedom.” In Rustin’s view, the combination of sustained activism, labor union support, and enduring leadership of King, opened the possibility of building a multiracial working-class coalition. Bayard Rustin, born in West Chester, Pennsylvania in 1912, was an unlikely strategist for the Southern Civil Rights Movement. He remained a unique figure within the Movement, identifying as a socialist, pacifist, and gay man. After moving to Harlem during the 1930s, he joined the Communist Party, in part due to their defense of the Scottsboro Boys. He left the Party in 1941, coming under the tutelage of the radical pacifist A.J. Muste and labor leader A. Philip Randolph. With deep credentials from the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Congress of Racial Equality, and the War Resisters League, Rustin played a key role in the political strategy of the Civil Rights Movement. He worked closely with King throughout the Montgomery Bus Boycott, introducing him to the ideology and practice of nonviolence. Through In Friendship, a Northern fundraising group he co-founded, and his pacifist network, Rustin created pathways for Northerners to support the Southern activists.

Author dc:creator

• Connor Nakamura

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Brent Cebul

• History

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://repository.upenn.edu/handle/20.500.14332/62459

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.upenn.edu:20.500.14332/62459