If the name Bayard Rustin doesn't immediately ring a bell to you upon hearing it, now's the time to get hip.
Photo: DemocracyNow
The revolutionary activist is heralded as an unsung hero in the world of civil rights on a major level. In the mid to late 1960s, Rustin, an openly gay man from Harlem, was a key player in both the Civil Rights Movement and Gay Rights Movement in the United States. He's the definition of intersectionality, working tirelessly alongside figures like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in an effort to combine equality and equity to his communities. Bold, forward-thinking, relentless: that's the nature of this individual.
On his birthday, we pay tribute to this trailblazer and influential figure in our history with a collection of ten inspirational quotes we should live by. We thank Bayard Rustin for his amazing contributions that are testimonies to the strides we've made and the journey that continues amongst us all.
1. "We are all one and if we don't know, we will learn it the hard way."
2. "To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true."
Photo: Past Daily
3. "I believe in social dislocation and creative trouble."
4. "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."
Photo: Palm Beach Post
5. "We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers."
6. "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."
7. "The organizers and perpetrators of segregation are as much the enemy of America as any foreign invader."
