Research Paper On Bayard Rustin

Opposeors to Martin Luther King's non-violent forms of protest felt that the Civil Rights Movement was dominated by white people too much and that black people should be more in control over the protests that affect them the most. Whites were heavily involved in the Civil Rights Movement on all levels, from senior positions involving planning the strategy and policies of the movement, to white liberals joining the protests and demonstrations. Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam felt that white people were not to be trusted and therefore white people would only harm the struggle for improvement of life for black people. Malcolm X openly criticised the 1963 Civil Rights march on Washington, where Martin Luther King delivered his famous "I have a dream…" speech to over two hundred thousand people. Malcolm X said that the march had been taken over by white liberals: "as they [white liberals] took it over it lost its militancy. It ceased to be angry, it ceased to be hot, it ceased to be uncompromising…it became a picnic, a circus". (11) Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam felt that a more uncompromising solidly black force could achieve far more than the more liberal people of the Civil Rights Movement. This offered an

The marchers gathered at the Washington Monument before dawn as planned on August 28, 1963. At 11:30, 100,000 to 200,000 of them began marching towards the Lincoln Memorial singing “We Shall Overcome” (“The March on Washington” 12). At the memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered multiple speeches along with other African Americans about segregation and discrimination issues. During one of his speeches, King Jr. declared that “we will not hate you, but we cannot obey your unjust laws. Do to us what you will and we will still love you…But we will soon wear you down by our capacity to suffer. And in winning our freedom, we will so appeal to your heart and conscience, that we will win you in the process” (“Negro Protest Movement” 507). This statement by King Jr. describes his plans of further nonviolent protesting against “unjust laws” to convince others of the civil rights movement’s cause. He furthers this statement and elaborates his ideas in his infamous speech, “I Have a Dream.”

King’s use of many rhetorical devices in these three paragraphs of “Letter from Birmingham Jail” solidify his conviction that segregation needs to be quelled immediately. Dr. King’s explanations justify the demonstrations and protests that he is participating in. Although this was a letter meant for clergymen, Dr. King simultaneously taught all of America a very important lesson: justice is a universal natural right, and when it is denied, it needs to be demanded. Racial equality is the form of justice in this case, as segregation was the culprit that divided society into two racial groups. Thus, Dr. King successfully advocated civil rights through this letter with powerful, clever

By the time of the 1963 ‘I Have a Dream’ speech at the March on Washington, King had become the voice of the various perspectives of life as a Black American. He now expressed the universal voice of all his people, and he was not afraid to use it in the pursuit of equality for Blacks (Branch, 881-3). Martin Luther King’s Birmingham campaign would prove to be the

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s response to a public statement of concern from multiple Southern white religious leaders entitled “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is perhaps one of the most important and influential pieces dedicated to the fight for equality written in the last one hundred years. It is striking just how much of the content within this letter continues to ring true. Numerous arguments King makes are still extremely relevant today, and it is nearly impossible to engage with and reflect on this text without drawing parallels to the current political landscape. This paper will discuss exactly how particular points

In “Letter from Birmingham Jail”, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr extensively establishes his ethos and proves his authority on the matter of racial injustice. “I have the honor of serving as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization operating in every southern state, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We have some eighty-five affiliated organizations across the South, and one of them is the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights” (King 1). King was the focal point of the Civil Rights movement and continues to symbolize the equality of all races to this very day. His authority to advocate on the

This was common for most civil rights activists however Rustin was able to take his hardships in jail and use them to better himself. An example of this was in April 1947 when Rustin sat next to a white man on a bus in Chapel Hill, NC and was then jailed for it. He spent time on the chain gang while in jail and after he was released he wrote an article that was published in the New York Times about what it was like to be on the chain gang. He explained how dehumanizing it was and the amount of grueling work they were forced to do. In class we have learned that people often took a jail sentence over paying a bail. We also spoke about how black bodies were seen as less than human by racist whites. This event in Rustin's life addresses both of these topics. He was able to experience first hand how it felt to be treated as subhuman and he brought that experience to the world. Publishing the article in the NY Times also shows the importance of the media during the movement. We have spoken about the impact that Emmett Till’s mother made when she allowed the picture of Till’s mutilated body to be published in Jet magazine. What Rustin did was similar to this in the sense that it brought the civil rights movement to the world and ensured that these atrocities did not go

As a student, King excelled in his work, and became a high school graduate at the age of 15. He had attended Atlanta University Laboratory and Booker T. Washington in his high school years. In addition, he began to attend Morehouse College on September 20, 1944. As a matter of fact, his father and grandfather had also been there. As a result of King’s early completion of high school, he graduated College at the age of 19. Still, in these years, and his years at Crozier Theological Seminary, which he attended after college, he began to question how to exterminate or confine the problem of social status and race in the country and society. It was evident, that King had the education to become a good leader in mending this issue, but it wasn’t known he would actually be imperative to changing modern day society in terms of race and equal treatment.

Martin Luther King Jr., a civil rights activist, was born in the Deep South, surrounded by racism. His experiences with racial discrimination fuelled his desire to become active in the civil rights movement; he eventually became a driving force behind the movement through his philosophy of nonviolence, changing the course of history for African Americans. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” King Jr. argues that “lukewarm acceptance is much more frustrating than

On August 28, 1963 more than 250,000 civil-rights supporters attended the March on Washington. Addressing the protesters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Profoundly, he proclaimed for a free nation of equality where all race would join together in the effort to achieve common ground. King stated his yearning for all colors to unite and be judged by character, not by race. African Americans would not be satisfied until their desire for freedom from persecution, bitterness, and hatred prevailed. Not only were the points in his speech powerful, but also the delivery he gave was so persuading and real

On August 28th 1963, Civil Rights activist, Martin Luther King Jr. made his infamous “I Have a Dream” speech. In the speech, King confronts the mistreatment of the African American community and the lack of free will they contain in society. Throughout the mid-1900s, the Civil Rights Movement took place, influenced by centuries of cruelty towards the African Americans.. The most influential speech in the modern era was said in front of thousands of Civil Rights activists who all shared a common goal; to fight for the respect and to be treated as equals within the United States.

The American Civil Rights Movement is personified through several prominent personalities. These figures exhibited strong character throughout their careers in activism that revolutionized the ideals and opportunities of the 20th century, standing as precedents for courage and perseverance in the face of widespread systemic oppression. However, not all of these figures received the acknowledgment and acceptance that their legacy deserved. One such figure was Bayard Rustin, a lifelong Civil Rights activist in the African American and LGBTQ communities whose experiences exemplified the hardships faced by American minorities. His career was defined by perpetual conflict and confrontation as both sides of the Civil Rights Movement attempted to demonize and discredit him. Despite this obstacle, Bayard Rustin’s controversial decision-making and sheer tenacity made him an influential force in the ongoing fight for equality in the United States of America.

Martin Luther King’s work, “Why We Can’t Wait,” describes the struggles of being an African American in the United States in the 1960s. He opens the book with a brief comparison of two young black children, a boy living in Harlem, New York, and a girl living in Birmingham, Alabama. Both children live in poverty and in a world with limited opportunities. By drawing this comparison, King confirms that racism is a national problem and not only a problem present in the South. King illustrates throughout the book that racism and discrimination not only affects African American families, but also white families. He describes opportunities that both races miss because of discrimination. The missed opportunities include: park closings because of the refusal to abide by a court ruling to have them integrated, baseball teams disbanded instead of letting black players join, and lastly, an orchestra refusing to come to Birmingham to perform for a segregated audience. Two very important themes that are illustrated throughout the book are hatred and moving forward. These themes are expressed and examined by King throughout the book and provide insight on the damaging effects of racism and what Americans should do to improve these conditions.

William P. Jones’s The March on Washington begins by highlighting A. Philip Randolph, a black labor unionist and civil rights advocate, who attempted to organize a March on Washington in 1941. Although Randolph’s original march failed to come to fruition, the novel depicts the proceedings as a prerequisite to the 1963 march. Depicting Randolph as a central figure to the March on Washington Movement, the novel tells the story of the events leading up to and through the March on Washington that took place on August 28, 1963. Although the majority of the focus of The March on Washington revolves around the actions of A. Philip Randolph and his mostly male peripheral contacts before the march, I argue that the capacity and framework of the foundations of the 1963 March on Washington were substantially influenced by the actions of prominent black female leaders.

(D'Emilio, 490). Rustin did not resort to violent means to achieve equality for the LBGT+ Movement or disappear from the movement entirely due to the negative perception it gave him in the civil rights movement. In an LGBT+ rights rally he attended he sought to inform individuals on the struggles that members of this group face and rose parallels between these challenges and the ones faced by African Americans at this time. In an 1986 speech presented by Rustin at this rally he addressed these parallels and argued that African Americans, while still oppressed, are no longer the primary target of oppression, that that is now the LGBT+ ( “Meet the Gay Activist Behind Martin Luther King Jr.'s Civil Rights Movement”). He argued that the struggle to gain equality demonstrated by the African American community serves as a template for how to achieve change to the LBGT+ community by illustrating how to maintain one’s composure and continue to exercise non-violence strategies to maintain peace while both groups are being attacked, oppressed, judged, looked down upon and ultimately excluded from the rest