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bayard rustin
Protecting the Dream by Fighting Back Against the Racist ‘DEI Hire’ Slur
This term has become a dog whistle for those who wish to diminish the accomplishments of Black women like VP Kamala Harris, wrongly suggesting that they are unqualified for their well-earned positions.
Aug 28, 2024
August 28, 1963 marks one of the most significant events in our nation’s history. On that day, more than a quarter million people assembled to participate in the historic “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom,” where Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech and demanded the civil and economic rights of Black Americans that were promised in the founding documents of this nation. That call to action, shared by many gathered in the nation’s capital, is one that still reverberates today.
The origins of this march trace back over two decades to 1941, when labor organizer A. Philip Randolph, along with activist Bayard Rustin, created the March on Washington Movement, which was designed to place pressure on the federal government to establish employment protections for Black people. Randolph and Rustin were both motivated to end segregation and racial discrimination that denied Black Americans fair opportunities in employment. Randolph eventually became the director of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, while Rustin became one of the central organizers of the 1963 march. Through their efforts, Randolph, Rustin, and many others brought people from all over the nation to Washington, D.C., to use their collective power to foster lasting change. The impact of the March on Washington contributed to the eventual signing of the Civil Rights Act the following year.
While this may be well-known—and for some, distant—history, some of the same social ills that the marchers sought to eliminate are still with us with renewed intensity. And the progress and equality they have fought for is once again under attack, this time by conservative organizations who are using hard-fought civil rights laws and anti-discrimination legislation against the very people these laws were designed to protect.
On August 28, 2024, I share this pledge once again with our nation, with the hope that we as a society will continue to uphold this promise and stand against that which threatens diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Our nation is once again fighting against a wave of race-based attacks against marginalized communities, this time under the guise of opposing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts. So far this year, at least 37 federal lawsuits targeting DEI programming have been filed. The year before that, at least 65 bills were introduced to limit DEI in higher education across 25 states. This coordinated campaign aims to rid our nation of DEI offices and programs, end anti-bias trainings, and stop funding for the support for diversity. As studies have consistently shown, employers and educational institutions that emphasize and encourage diverse workforces and student bodies regularly outperform their counterparts among various measures.
Although many in this anti-DEI movement claim that racism no longer exists in our nation and thus nullifying the need for diversity, there is no denying the facts: Racial wealth divides persist, and people of color continue to endure systemic discrimination. Yet, some flatly reject the myriad data on the clear benefits of having diverse workforces and classrooms, and the pressure campaign launched by the conservative movement has caused many businesses to fold and abolish their DEI commitments and efforts completely.
And this movement is now becoming more blatant with its racist motivations, not only attacking universities and businesses, but also directly attacking people of color. We see it in the grotesque attacks on the first woman of color nominated for president, Vice President Kamala Harris, where right-wing activists have pejoratively labeled her as a “DEI hire.” This term has become a dog whistle for those who wish to diminish the accomplishments of Black women, wrongly suggesting that they are unqualified for their well-earned positions, and that but for their race and gender, they would not be where they are. Make no mistake: Right-wing organizations and activists are now using the term “DEI hire” as a slur to strip away the achievements of people of color who are in positions of power.
It is vital that we fight back against unfounded and dangerous attacks on DEI. Our nation cannot achieve the equality we hold as a moral imperative if we allow the progress we’ve made to be eroded. We can all look to the past as a road map to chart a better future where we fight for a nation–and world–free of discrimination and inequality. Following Dr. King’s speech, A. Philip Randolph invited those in attendance at the march to take a pledge:
Standing before the Lincoln Memorial on the 28th of August, in the centennial year of emancipation, I affirm my complete personal commitment to the struggle for jobs and freedom for Americans. To fulfill that commitment, I pledge that I will not relax until victory is won. I pledge that I will join and support all actions undertaken in good faith in accord with the time-honored Democratic tradition of nonviolent protest, of peaceful assembly, and petition, and of redress through the courts and the legislative process. I pledge to carry the message of the march to my friends and neighbors back home and arouse them to an equal commitment and equal effort. I will march and I will write letters. I will demonstrate and I will vote. I will work to make sure that my voice and those of my brothers ring clear and determine from every corner of our land. I pledge my heart and my mind and my body unequivocally and without regard to personal sacrifice, to the achievement of social peace through social justice.
As we commemorate the March on Washington, let us reflect on the past so that it emboldens us to fight for the future. And so, on August 28, 2024, I share this pledge once again with our nation, with the hope that we as a society will continue to uphold this promise and stand against that which threatens diversity, equity, and inclusion. It is up to us to ensure that the progress made by those who marched is not undone by those who seek to divide us, and that the labor and freedoms of all Americans remain protected.
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In Remembrance of James Lawson, a Force for Good and Champion of Peace
We at the Fellowship of Reconciliation, where he worked for many years, are blessed to have counted the civil rights leader among our core team of organizers. It is with reverence that we remember his life and time with us.
Jun 16, 2024
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called him “the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world.” To Rep. John Lewis, he was “the architect of the nonviolence movement.” Jesse Jackson simply called him “the Teacher.” We at the Fellowship of Reconciliation are blessed to have counted him among our core team of organizers. It is with reverence that we remember his life and time with us.
Rev. James M. Lawson, Jr., who died Sunday at age 95, was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and moved with his family to Massillon, Ohio, shortly after. As part of a deeply Christian family, James began regularly reading the bible and developed a prophetic and liberatory interpretation of the gospels at an early age. In a 2014 interview published by Fellowship magazine, Lawson told Diane Lefer, “By the end of my high school years, I came to recognize that that whole business – walk the second mile, turn the other cheek, pray for the enemy, see the enemy as a fellow human being – was a resistance movement. It was not an acquiescent affair or a passive affair. I saw it as a place where my own life grew in strength inwardly, and where I had actually seen people changed because I responded with the other cheek. I went the second mile with them.”
While attending Baldwin-Wallace College, Lawson met A.J. Muste, the Fellowship of Reconciliation’s executive secretary, a renowned pacifist and nonviolent direct action strategist. Deeply inspired, Lawson immediately joined the FOR. Graduating college in 1950, as the Cold War grew, Lawson determined that he would refuse the military draft. Instead of Korea, he was sent to prison, where he served 13 months.
In 1953, Lawson accepted an offer from Hislop College in Nagpur, India, to teach and coach athletics, giving him the opportunity to, like FOR members Howard Thurman and Bayard Rustin had done before him, explore the connections between the Indian self-determination movement and the African-American freedom struggle. Lawson spent the next three years on the subcontinent studying Gandhi’s life and the Satyagraha movement. “I combined the methodological analysis of Gandhi with the teachings of Jesus, who concludes that there are no human beings that you can exclude from the grace of God,” Lawson described to Lefer.
Lawson was completing a graduate degree at the Oberlin School of Theology when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., while visiting the campus, recruited him. King insisted to Lawson that his expertise was needed, not eventually, but immediately! “I mentioned to [King] that while in college I had long wanted to work in the South – especially because of segregation – as a place of work, and that I wanted to do that still,” Lawson told Fellowship magazine editor Richard Deats in 1999. “His response was: ‘Come now! Don’t wait! Don’t put it off too long. We need you NOW!”
When Lawson told A.J. Muste of his decision to move South, Muste quickly offered him a position as FOR’s Southern Field Secretary. Basing himself initially in Nashville, Lawson began working throughout the South, initially with FOR and then the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He focused especially on recruiting and training a generation of nonviolent direct-action activists. Those young people then launched the sit-ins and Freedom Rides and founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).
In 1965, while representing SCLC on an International FOR delegation to Vietnam, Lawson met Thich Nhat Hanh. This encounter significantly affected Lawson, inspiring him to facilitate a meeting between the Buddhist monk and Dr. King, and ultimately led to King’s dramatic public stance against the U.S. war in Vietnam. Lawson’s profound assessment of U.S. militarism and what he called “plantation capitalism” shaped not only the interweaving of the 1960s civil rights and anti-war struggles but ultimately how our intersectional social movements are shaped today.
In 1974, in Los Angeles, Lawson continued his solidarity with impoverished low-wage workers. He founded Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice to enlist faith communities in this struggle and pushed direct action campaigns for which he was arrested “more [times] than [during] all his work in the South.”
Lawson spent his last decades both working within peace circles while offering critiques that their movements devoted too much of their focus outside U.S. borders. He believed that true change could only come from within. “Only by engaging in domestic issues and molding a domestic coalition for justice can we confront the militarization of our land,” he argued to Lefer in 2014. “We must confront that here – not over there.”
Whether prophetically interpreting the scriptures, challenging America’s original sin with the fierce power of nonviolent direct action, or strategically connecting with other monumental peace leaders, Lawson’s commitment to social justice was relentless and unwavering. We at the Fellowship of Reconciliation are blessed to have worked with and been mentored by him. As we continue to confront the injustices of our times, we know that Lawson’s spirit is walking beside us.
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In Praise of Bayard Rustin's Way of Doing Things
What’s crucial to understand about Rustin and his brand of "practical radicalism" is that he was interested in winning, not just being morally right.
Nov 19, 2023
Ask most Americans what they think of “radicals” and you’ll hear skepticism. Ask them about “practical radicals,” and you might get a chuckle. Surely practical people don’t try to change society in dramatic ways?
A new film and books about Bayard Rustin, an organizer and strategist in civil rights, peace, and economic justice movements, bring needed attention to the crucial, hidden tradition of practical radicalism that we desperately need to recover.
Practical radicals are responsible for much of the progress we have made over the centuries, and they are our best hope for addressing growing crises of democracy, climate change, and inequality today.
Rustin is best known as the architect of the famous 1963 March on Washington where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. But Rustin spent decades before and after that pivotal event organizing for fundamental changes in American society.
He was a radical who sought an end to racism, war, and poverty. He was motivated by his Quaker faith, his training in nonviolence, pacifism, and an abiding commitment to social democracy. He was persecuted, jailed, shunned and condemned both for his radical convictions and for being a gay man.
Rustin emphasized the need for coalitions — understanding that the path to victory depended on uniting a majority comprised of many minorities. Building such coalitions is difficult work that requires compromises and patience.
He had little patience for “moderates” who advised civil rights activists to temper their demands for justice. He was unafraid to take big, unconventional risks to advance the cause of justice.
What’s crucial to understand about Rustin is that he was interested in winning, not just being morally right. That led him to reject not only the cramped visions of centrists, but also the wishful thinking of utopian radicals.
In a 1965 essay, Rustin famously said that his “quarrel with the ‘no-win’ tendency in the civil rights movement (and the reason I have so designated it) parallels my quarrel with the moderates outside the movement. As the latter lack the vision or the will for fundamental change, the former lack a realistic strategy for achieving it. For such a strategy, they substitute militancy. But militancy is a matter of posture and volume, not of effect.”
Rustin’s focus on winning led him to openly challenge other leaders he thought were unrealistic, even if their views were popular. As a friend put it, “wherever he was, he stood at a rakish angle to it.”
This attention to strategy and winning led Rustin to focus on the details — not just calling for a big march, but patiently organizing the buses to get people there and making sure that marchers had peanut butter rather than cheese sandwiches because the latter would spoil in the hot sun.
Rustin was an organizer who trained other leaders, rather than seeking the spotlight himself — the list of people he mentored includes Rev. King.
Rustin emphasized the need for coalitions — understanding that the path to victory depended on uniting a majority comprised of many minorities. Building such coalitions is difficult work that requires compromises and patience.
His insistence on the importance of an alliance between labor and racial justice movements resonates today.
In this age of performative protest and attention-grabbing social media, the crucial role of practical radicals in actually achieving and not just talking about social change often gets ignored.
Rustin didn’t emphasize fiery speeches or taking the most outrageous position on an issue. He organized behind the scenes, sweated the details, and patiently built coalitions that could win majority support.
Such an approach will prove crucial to those seeking to defeat authoritarian movements in the U.S. today, which will require patiently organizing voters through individual one-to-one conversations and working with people who we may disagree with about many issues.
We might also learn from Rustin’s view that the opposition’s coalition sometimes needs to be broken apart in order to win. Just as he sought to drive Dixiecrats out of the Democratic Party, today’s pro-democracy movements will need to pry apart segments of a formidable authoritarian coalition.
Rustin was trained by other practical radicals, including A Philip Randolph, the founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and AJ Muste, an anti-war activist and labor leader. The practical radical tradition runs deep in American history, including people unknown to most Americans like Ella Baker and Rev. Wyatt Teee Walker in the civil rights tradition, and organizers like William Z. Foster and Fannia Cohn in worker movements.
The tradition is alive today. In our new book, Practical Radicals, we feature the stories and strategies of groups that have won extraordinary victories, including worker movements like the Fight for 15 and a Union, community organizations like Make the Road NY, and international climate groups like 350.org.
But in this age of performative protest and attention grabbing social media, the crucial role of practical radicals in actually achieving and not just talking about social change often gets ignored. Rustin carried on a proud and humble lineage that has advanced justice and equality. It’s time for practical radicals to take center stage.
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