Racism Quotes by Bayard Rustin

8 Racism quotes by Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin presents eight short reflections on racism, each line echoing his principled advocacy. This compact anthology serves as a quick, focused snapshot of his ideas.

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When you're wrong, you're wrong. But when you're right, you're wrong anyhow.

Bayard Rustin

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Every indifference to prejudice is suicide because, if I don’t fight all bigotry, bigotry itself will be strengthened and, sooner or later,…

Bayard Rustin

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I am an opponent of war and of war preparations and an opponent of universal military training and conscription; but entirely apart…

Bayard Rustin

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The organizers and perpetuators of segregation are as much the enemy of America as any foreign invader.

Bayard Rustin

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Both morally and practically, segregation is to me a basic injustice. Since I believe it to be so, I must attempt to…

Bayard Rustin

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There is a strong moralistic strain in the civil rights movement that would remind us that power corrupts, forgetting that the absence…

Bayard Rustin

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If I do not fight bigotry wherever it is, bigotry is thereby strengthened. And to the degree that it is strengthened, it…

Bayard Rustin

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Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and…

Bayard Rustin

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Black gay activists should try to build coalitions of people for the elimination of all injustice.

Bayard Rustin

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When you're wrong, you're wrong. But when you're right, you're wrong anyhow.

Bayard Rustin

Image

Every indifference to prejudice is suicide because, if I don’t fight all bigotry, bigotry itself will be strengthened and, sooner or later, it will…

Bayard Rustin

Image

I am an opponent of war and of war preparations and an opponent of universal military training and conscription; but entirely apart from that…

Bayard Rustin

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Martin Luther King, with whom I worked very closely, became very distressed when a number of the ministers working for him wanted him to…

Bayard Rustin

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If we desire a society of peace, then we cannot achieve such a society through violence. If we desire a society without discrimination, then…

Bayard Rustin

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The real radical is that person who has a vision of equality and is willing to do those things that will bring reality closer…

Bayard Rustin

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The only weapon we have is our bodies, and we need to tuck them in places so wheels don't turn

Bayard Rustin

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Bigotrys birthplace is the sinister back room of the mind where plots and schemes are hatched for the persecution and oppression of other human…

Bayard Rustin

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My activism did not spring from being black...The racial injustice that was present in this country during my youth was a challenge to my…

Bayard Rustin

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If we desire a society in which men are brothers, then we must act towards one another with brotherhood. If we can build such…

Bayard Rustin

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We are all one - and if we don't know it, we will learn it the hard way.

Bayard Rustin

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I believe there are certain types of movements which cannot be married.

Bayard Rustin

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Looking back at his career, Mr. Rustin, a Quaker, once wrote: ‘The principal factors which influenced my life are 1) nonviolent tactics; 2) constitutional…

Bayard Rustin

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When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him.

Bayard Rustin

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