"Brother Outsider" meet Minnesota Not So Nice

So I'm taking "the ethics of MLK" at school and the more you study the man, the more admirable he is, truly. One of the greatest Americans. After a while, our jaded minds kind of let King fade into the background and someone occasionally trots out a snippet of his speech. But that's sad because he's so much more than the cliches people have tried to attach to him; really, he just towers. But standing in his enormous shadow is one of my new heroes:

Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin was awesome. He was a singer, even performing in John Henry with Paul Robeson (Paul freakin Robeson! I believe "freakin" is actually Paul's middle name...). He was an academic and athletic star in school. He attended Wilberforce University and Cheyney State. He was a former communist who left the CPUSA when Stalin dropped the integration of the military issue and called on communists to start working on getting America into the war. He worked with the Fellowship of Reconciliation and helped launch the Congress on Racial Equality. As a Quaker and pacifist, he refused military service and went to jail. He organized protests against segregated dining hall seating in prison for crying out loud! He organized the Journey of Reconciliation in 1947. You may recognize that particular action by the fact that it was the template for the Montgomery bus boycott and the Freedom Rides. He and A. Philip Randolph were already planning a march on Washington in 1941 but pulled back when FDR made a gesture (executive order 8802).

He was a very close advisor to Dr. King, some have called Bayard his main advisor. It was Rustin who counseled Martin on nonviolence, and kept Gandhi's writings and principles in front of King during their struggles. Rustin was the main organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Equality. A few leaders opposed Rustin's role in organizing the action, including Minnesota's Roy Wilkins (yes, THAT Roy Wilkins). Their reasons? Rustin was a former communist, Rustin had been arrested too many times, Rustin would be controversial, oh yeah, and

Rustin was as gay as a whistle! God bless us Minnesotans, we're always willing to take pride in our civil rights. But gay ones? Well... have you heard the stuff from last week's hearings at the capitol? Like how all these white ministers keep rolling out the quotes of a few black ministers and other black people and so they could be able to say "gay rights are NOTHING like African American rights" and "Dr. King's legacy should not also stand for homosexual acts" and "I'm scared because I'm a stupid bigot and I need the blessing of a black person to pretend I'm not"

Okay nobody said that last one and the other two are kind of paraphrases. But you get the idea! I prayed, thanking GOD that the Senate subcommittee struck down the amendment last week. Dammit, America! Dammit, Minnesota! We have better things to do with our prayers! You are wasting our valuable prayer time with Senate subcommittees and prayer against things! Let us get back to praying FOR things, praying for positive change. I'm interested in praying for marital equity, not praying that someone vote no on a subcommittee proposal in a state senate! Give relationship equity to all people now! Then we can go back to praying for regime change in Iran.

Wait.

YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

Look at that photo on the right. Tell me you're going to look in that awesome face and say, "Sorry Bayard, you still have to wait. You guys got your black rights though, right? Isn't that enough? Buck up, it's only been 43 years. These things take time." They are co-opting King and the modern followers of King to provide cover for their dehumanizing agenda. But King didn't let them dehumanize Bayard Rustin. He didn't speak at the March, but Rustin made it happen and King stuck by him.