Skip to content

Bayard Rustin Quotes

1912–1987 United States

Bayard Rustin (/ˈbaɪərd/; March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was an African-American leader in the movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. He was born and raised in Pennsylvania where his family was involved in civil rights work.

United States
Activists

Random Bayard Rustin quote

9 quotes

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.

That which separates man from his brother is evil and must be resisted.

To Local Board No. 63 (1943)

We in America reject planning except for the private sector of the economy, so what we have is democratic socialization for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor.

It is always timely and virtuous to change-to take in all humility a new path.

To Local Board No. 63 (1943)

Segregation, separation, according to Jesus, is the basis of continuous violence.

To Local Board No. 63 (1943)

We are all one, and if we don’t know it we will learn it the hard way.

War is wrong. Conscription is a concomitant of modern war. Thus conscription for so vast an evil as war is wrong.

To Local Board No. 63 (1943)

Conscription for war is inconsistent with freedom of conscience, which is not merely the right to believe, but to act on the degree of truth that one receives, to follow a vocation which is God-inspired and God-directed.

To Local Board No. 63 (1943)

the basic spiritual truth that men are brothers in the sight of God

To Local Board No. 63 (1943)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Bayard Rustin (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.