Not much time goes by in political discourse without some mention of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which took place 61 years ago this week. It was the largest gathering for civil rights of its time, with an estimated 250,000 people attending. Martin Luther King, Jr. made his “I Have a Dream” speech and the rest – as they say – is history…
In more recent times, overdue recognition has come to Bayard Rustin for his critical role in making the march happen. Lesser-known is that when Bayard was brought aboard to lead the day-to-day planning of the march by labor organizer A. Philip Randolph of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Randolph made a proposal to the War Resisters League that Bayard be allowed to take leave from his post with WRL to focus on organizing the march.
But this blog isn’t specifically related to the March on Washington, nor is it a delve into the evolution of Bayard Rustin’s political affiliations over the years. It’s not about CORE, the Journey of Reconciliation, his imprisonment with many other conscientious objectors who refused to be inducted into the military during WWII, nor about his solidarity work in Asia and Africa.
This post is a sketch from a middle chapter in Bayard Rustin’s career, and one that really deserves a much deeper dive than a short blog can provide. This is the story of the War Resisters League’s decision to hire Bayard.
Hiring him was a decision that WRL’s leadership wrestled over and ultimately decided to do. Even a cursory look at it reveals a lot about American social norms (then and now) and, likewise, about how power, oppression, and homophobia function even in professed radical organizations like WRL.
In January, 1953 police arrested Rustin when they spotted him having gay sex in a car after making a speech. Bayard lost his job with the Fellowship of Reconciliation. It might have seemed even to him that it would be the end of his career working for racial justice and against militarism, but it wasn’t.
On April 27, 1953, Rustin resigned from WRL’s Executive Committee but his resignation was turned down by the committee. Later that year, WRL considered hiring him and a huge fight ensued, with some members resigning in protest.
In August 1953, WRL Chair Roy Finch communicated with WRL leadership over letters and memos to gather their feedback and vote on the hiring of Rustin as a temporary consultant for conference planning.
A Professor of Psychology at Roosevelt College, wrote in the clinical terms of the day that “Bayard’s malady” was a “particularly obdurate one,” in great need of “persistent vigilance” and “preventative hygiene” to prevent a relapse.
Another advisor, however—Dr. Herbert Kellman of John Hopkins University (later a leading figure at Harvard’s Department of Psychology)—had the forethought to state that “it would be a shame for the pacifist movement to waste the talents, skills, and experience that Bayard has…. [There is] little question that Bayard will be able to handle the job successfully despite his so-called ‘emotional problems.’”
Frances Witherspoon, who had (with her partner Tracy Mygatt) helped Jessie Wallace Hughan found the WRL in 1923, addressed some of her concerns with hiring Rustin:
"I have learned that the psychological and physical trouble from which he suffers is not a recent one, but of fairly long standing, and I do not feel that the recent regrettable episode is far enough in the past—actually but a few months—for his psychiatrist or Bayard himself to be able to guarantee that there will be no recurrence.”
Fellow WWII C.O. and Libertarian Press worker Dave Dellinger wrote a positive letter with refreshing clarity, noting that “the power of nonviolence” works differently than that of lowest-common-denominator electoral politics, but rather “through dedicated people.” Critical of the FOR’s handling of Bayard’s sexual orientation, Dellinger saw the need for a “grassroots, dynamic pacifism,” which Rustin could bring with his “exceptional talents and dedication.” In his four-page, single-spaced letter to the Executive Committee, Dellinger stated:
“I would rather take a chance of losing a thousand votes and winning a hundred pacifists, by having Bayard work for us.”
The digitized collection of letters from WRL's permanent archive at Swarthmore can be read here.
On September 25 1953, there was a special meeting to formalize hiring Rustin as program director.
A.J. Muste, longtime mentor to Bayard, and more recently his boss at FOR, was strongly opposed to hiring him, and resigned from WRL’s Executive Committee in protest.
“Bayard was very hurt by A.J.’s resigning and took it personally because he had been close to A.J. But A.J. did apologize and came back to WRL. They worked together on Liberation magazine, but I don’t know if Bayard ever forgot it.” – Ralph DiGia, The Nonviolent Activist, Volume 4 Number 8.
Bayard continued to work for WRL until 1965, in many key roles—including the period when he was chief architect of the 1963 March on Washington. You can read more about Bayard’s time with WRL here. He was given the 1965 WRL Peace Award.
Bayard Rustin at War Resisters League meeting (Photo courtesy of Bayard Rustin Estate)
In accepting the award Rustin remarked,
"Actually, friends, the War Resisters League has done so much for me that I should be giving it some kind of award.... I would like to say to you that I sincerely believe that I'm one of the most fortunate people on Earth for having been associated with the League.... It was the War Resisters League which made it possible one period in my career when I was not able really to make a contribution that I wanted to make. You had faith enough in me to call me to work and this I shall never, never forget...."
Years later in the 1980s, shortly after Bayard’s death, Igal Roodenko and Ralph DiGia shared some of their memories with Susan Pines in an interview published in The Nonviolent Activist, Volume 4 Number 8.
Photo: Igal Roodenko with Bayard Rustin at WRI Triennial, India, 1986. Photo by Walter Nagle from Nonviolent_Activist, Vol. 4, No. 8, December 1987
- Sky Hall
