If anyone thinks they're going to get anything out of the Reagan administration for any particular group, they're wrong! You have to all combine and fight a head-on battle - in the name of justice and equality - and even that's going to be difficult. But if we let ourselves get separated so that we're working for gays or school children or the aged, we're in trouble.
Bayard RustinThe real radical is that person who has a vision of equality and is willing to do those things that will bring reality closer to that vision. . .
Bayard RustinToday, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new โniggersโ are gays. It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change. The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people.
Bayard RustinPeople will never fight for your freedom if you have not given evidence that you are prepared to fight for it yourself.
Bayard RustinMy activism did not spring from being black...The racial injustice that was present in this country during my youth was a challenge to my belief in the oneness of the human family.
Bayard Rustin