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.
1963 年 8 月 28 日, 小馬丁.路德.金恩在爭取 工作與自由的華盛頓大遊行中, 發表了他的 「我有一個夢想」演講。 當天, 近 25 萬人 聚集在國家廣場, 要求結束歧視、種族隔離、暴力, 以及全美國黑人仍普遍感受到的 經濟不平等。 沒有遊行的主要組織者— 貝亞德.拉斯廷, 這一切都不可能發生。
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.
拉斯廷在基督教貴格會 的家庭長大, 高中時已開始針對 種族隔離作和平抗議。 終其一生,他致力於和平主義, 還因為反對第二次世界大戰, 拒絕入伍而於 1944 年入獄。 坐牢兩年期間, 他在獄中抗議監獄設施的種族隔離。
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.
拉斯廷每到一處, 都去組織和倡導, 並且了解掌握各地 使用的方法、組織, 以及那些能協助推展 平權運動的人。 當共產黨將美國黑人民權 列為其優先事項之一時, 他加入過共產黨。 但很快就因共黨的 專制傾而幻想破滅, 脫離了他們。 1948 年 他前往印度學習 不久前被暗殺的 聖雄甘地的和平抵抗策略。 返回美國的時候, 他帶回來和平抗議策略, 包括公民不服從運動。
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.
1955 年,他開始與 小馬丁.路德.金恩合作, 並與他分享這些構想。 隨著金恩的聲望地位提高, 拉斯廷成為他的主要顧問, 也成了更廣泛的民權運動裡 舉足輕重的戰略家。 他的組織專長發揮在 1956 年阿拉巴馬州 蒙哥馬利的抵制公車運動。 事實上,早在十年前, 他已經在組織和參與交通抗議活動, 那都有助於激發這場抵制公車運動。
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.
他組織過的最大規模活動, 即是 1963 年 他領導規劃的華盛頓全國大遊行。 當時最大的顧慮是:如果發生騷亂, 不但可能傷及遊行者, 也會破壞他們想傳達的 和平抗議信息。 拉斯廷不僅與華盛頓特區 警察及醫院合作準備, 還組織培訓了由 2000 名 志願者組成的安全警衛。 雖然他有靈巧的管理能力, 但因為他是同性戀。 有些其他組織者不要拉斯廷 和一些來自南方的領袖 一同走在遊行隊伍前列。
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.
儘管受到怠慢, 拉斯廷仍保持專注, 在遊行那天 他發表了致甘迺迪總統的演講, 道出遊行者的訴求。 遊行本身進展順利, 沒有任何暴力。 一般認為它促成了 1964 年 民權法案的通過, 結束了公共場所的種族隔離, 並禁止就業歧視, 也促成了 1965 年的選舉權法案, 禁止投票施行上的歧視。
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.
儘管他為民權運動服務了數十年, 拉斯廷對某些政治問題的立場 並不受他的同儕歡迎。 有些人認為他對越戰批評不力, 或者覺得他太急於與總統、國會等 現有政治勢力合作。 也有人因他過去 與共產黨的關係而不舒服。 但最終, 不論是他要與政府合作的信念, 或是加入共產黨的作法, 都是因為他想要以 最快的方式, 為美國黑人爭取到 最大的實質的自由權利。
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.”
在 1960 年代和 70 年代,數次 有機會擔任有影響力的角色時, 拉斯廷都被跳過, 但他從未放棄他的行動主義。 在 1980 年代, 他公開了自己是同性戀, 而且直到 1987 年去世前, 對引起人們對艾滋病危機的關注 起了很大的作用。 2013 年, 華盛頓大遊行之後五十年, 奧巴馬總統追授予他 《總統自由勳章》, 稱讚拉斯廷 「大步走向真正的平等, 無論我們是誰, 也不論我們愛誰。」