On August 28th, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. That day, nearly a quarter million people gathered on the national mall to demand an end to the discrimination, segregation, violence, and economic exclusion black people still faced across the United States. None of it would have been possible without the march’s chief organizer – a man named Bayard Rustin.
Dana 28. avgusta 1963. godine, Martin Luter King Junior održao je svoj govor „Ja imam san“ na Maršu na Vašington za radna mesta i slobodu. Tog dana, skoro četvrt miliona ljudi okupilo se u nacionalnom tržnom centru sa zahtevom da se okonča diskriminacija, segregacija, nasilje i ekonomska isključenost sa kojom su se crnci i dalje suočavali širom Sjedinjenih Država. Ništa od toga ne bi bilo moguće bez glavnog organizatora marša, čoveka po imenu Bajard Rastin.
Rustin grew up in a Quaker household, and began peacefully protesting racial segregation in high school. He remained committed to pacifism throughout his life, and was jailed in 1944 as a conscientious objector to World War II. During his two-year imprisonment, he protested the segregated facilities from within.
Rastin je odrastao u domaćinstvu kvekera i počeo je da mirno protestuje protiv rasne segregacije u srednjoj školi. Ostao je posvećen pacifizmu čitavog svog života, i bio je u zatvoru 1944. godine jer se savesno protivio Drugom svetskom ratu. Tokom dve godine u zatvoru,
Wherever Rustin went, he organized and advocated, and was constantly attuned to the methods, groups, and people who could help further messages of equality. He joined the Communist Party when black American’s civil rights were one of its priorities, but soon became disillusioned by the party’s authoritarian leanings and left. In 1948, he traveled to India to learn the peaceful resistance strategies of the recently assassinated Mahatma Gandhi. He returned to the United States armed with strategies for peaceful protest, including civil disobedience.
iznutra je protestovao zbog odvojenih objekata. Gde god da je Rastin išao, organizovao je i zalagao se, i stalno je imao osećaj za metode, grupe i ljude koji bi pomogli širenju poruka jednakosti. Pristupio je komunističkoj partiji kada su građanska prava crnaca u Americi bila među njihovim prioritetima, ali ubrzo se razočarao zbog autoritarnih sklonosti stranke i napustio ju je. Godine 1948, putovao je u Indiju kako bi naučio mirne strategije otpora nedavno ubijenog Mahatme Gandija. Vratio se u Sjedinjene Države naoružan strategijama za mirni protest, uključujući građansku neposlušnost.
He began to work with Martin Luther King Jr in 1955, and shared these ideas with him. As King’s prominence increased, Rustin became his main advisor, as well as a key strategist in the broader civil rights movement. He brought his organizing expertise to the 1956 bus boycotts in Montgomery, Alabama —in fact, he had organized and participated in a transportation protest that helped inspire the boycotts almost a decade before.
Počeo je da radi sa Martinom Luterom Kingom 1955. godine i podelio je ove ideje sa njim. Kako je Kingova popularnost rasla, Rastin je postao njegov glavni savetnik, kao i ključni strateg u širem pokretu za građanska prava. Doneo je svoju stručnost za organizovanje na bojkote autobusa 1956. godine u Montgomeriju u Alabami. Zapravo, organizovao je i učestvovao u protestu prevoza koji je inspirisao bojkote skoro deceniju pre njih.
His largest-scale organizing project came in 1963, when he led the planning for the national march on Washington. The possibility of riots that could injure marchers and undermine their message of peaceful protest was a huge concern. Rustin not only worked with the DC police and hospitals to prepare, but organized and trained a volunteer force of 2,000 security marshals. In spite of his deft management, some of the other organizers did not want Rustin to march in front with other leaders from the south, because of his homosexuality.
Njegov najveći organizacioni projekat nastupio je 1963. godine, kada je vodio planiranje nacionalnog marša na Vašington. Mogućnost nereda koji bi mogli da povrede učesnike i da potkopaju njihovu poruku mirnog protesta bila je velika briga. Ne samo da je Rastin radio na pripremama sa policijom i bolnicama u Vašingtonu, već je i organizovao i obučio silu volontera od 2 000 službenika za bezbednost. Uprkos njegovom veštom upravljanju, neki među ostalim organizatorima nisu želeli da Rastin maršira na čelu
Despite these slights, Rustin maintained his focus, and on the day of the march he delivered the marchers' demands in a speech directed at President John F. Kennedy. The march itself proceeded smoothly, without any violence. It has been credited with helping pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination, and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which outlawed discriminatory voting practices.
sa drugim liderima sa juga zbog njegove homoseksualnosti. Uprkos ovim nipodaštavanjima, Rustin je zadržao fokus i na dan marša izneo je zahteve učesnika u maršu u govoru upućenom predsedniku Džonu Kenediju. Sam marš je prošao neometano, bez ikakvog nasilja. Zaslužan je za donošenje Zakona o građanskim pravima 1964. godine koji je zaustavio segregaciju na javnim mestima i zabranio diskriminaciju pri zapošljavanju, kao i Zakona o glasačkim pravima iz 1965. godine,
In spite of his decades of service, Rustin’s positions on certain political issues were unpopular among his peers. Some thought he wasn’t critical enough of the Vietnam War, or that he was too eager to collaborate with the political establishment including the president and congress. Others were uncomfortable with his former communist affiliation. But ultimately, both his belief in collaboration with the government and his membership to the communist party had been driven by his desire to maximize tangible gains in liberties for black Americans, and to do so as quickly as possible.
koji je zabranio diskriminatorne običaje pri glasanju. I pored toga što je služio decenijama, Rastinovi stavovi o određenim političkim pitanjima nisu bili popularni među njegovim saborcima. Neki su smatrali da nije dovoljno kritičan u vezi sa Vijetnamskim ratom, ili da je bio previše spreman na saradnju sa političkim institucijama kao što su predsednik i kongres. Drugi nisu prihvatali njegovu komunističku prošlost. Ali naposletku, i njegova vera u saradnju sa vlašću i njegova pripadnost komunističkoj partiji vodila je njegova želja da maksimalno uveća konkretnu dobit u pogledu sloboda crnaca u Americi, i da to postigne što je brže moguće.
Rustin was passed over for several influential roles in the 1960s and 70s, but he never stopped his activism. In the 1980s, he publicly came out as gay, and was instrumental in drawing attention to the AIDS crisis until his death in 1987. In 2013, fifty years after the March On Washington, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, praising Rustin’s “march towards true equality, no matter who we are or who we love.”
Rastina su zaobišli u izboru nekoliko uticajnih uloga 1960-ih i 70-ih, ali nikada nije prekinuo sa aktivizmom. Osamdesetih godina je javno razotkrio da je gej i imao je ulogu u ukazivanju na krizu side do svoje smrti 1987. godine. Godine 2013, 50 godina nakon Marša na Vašington, predsednik Barak Obama mu je posthumno dodelio predsedničku medalju slobode, uz pohvalu Rastinovom „maršu ka istinskoj jednakosti,