Bayard Rustin had three strikes against him.
He was a Black man.
As a Pacifist Quaker his objection to WWII was seen
by some as anti-America, and by others as pro-Germany.
And he was a Gay man who was arrested on charges of
lewd behavior for having sex with another man.
In spite of this, or perhaps partially because of
this, his fight for racial equality brought him to the attention of the leaders
of the civil rights movement going back to the 1940s, who eventually introduced
him to Martin Luther King to whom he taught the non-violent approach that King
became known for after having seen King’s supporters at his house carrying
rifles. It was Rustin who taught King that Black men with weapons could be
easily blamed for any violence created by anyone at any rally, march, or
gathering, while unarmed Black men being attacked at the same by armed men
could not, and that violence would clearly illustrate who was in the wrong.
Meeting violence with peace would win support.
His being Gay was a problem for leaders of the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference, so, although they benefited from his hard
work, they were uneasy with his being in the public eye.
The March on Washington in 1963, because of certain
events, had to be organized in 90 days, and Rustin arranged the transportation,
food, and the general logistics in that time, including finding those hotels
and motels that would not turn Black people away.
He may have been allowed to give a speech at the Lincoln memorial that day that has been largely forgotten, and was then pushed into the background while others stood front and center, his greatest contribution to that day was his role in crafting the “I Have a Dream Speech” for which credit has yet to be openly given.
But leaders like Ralph Abernathy wanted to distance
the movement from him, and convinced MLK, much to his later expressed regret,
to dismiss him from the role he had played and put him on the curb.
A Phillip Randolph, an early leader in the Civil Rights and a leader in the Labor movement and who had threatened FDR with a march on Washington in the early 1940s if unfair labor practices in relation to people of color did not end, leading President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802 in 1941, banning discrimination in the defense industries during World War II, was the person who knew Rustin’s loss would be a blow to the movement, and, so, founded the A Phillip Randolph Institute of the AFL/CIO so that Rustin’s skills could still be utilized and his contributions to the civil rights movement could continue in spite of the anti-Gay attitude of the leaders of the SCLC.
Eventually, as his approach to racial equality was
replaced as times and leadership changed, Rustin took his talents into the
battle for Gay rights.
In many high school libraries up to the recent past, where there were any books about Gay people, Gay people were secondary characters who were dead by the end of the book either at the hands of others, or at their own hands because they just could not handle their being Gay, and, if they lived, theirs was a sad and lonely life filled with guilt and regret. Although other characters might have had sympathy for them, they were still dead or lonely, and the sympathy patronizing.
If there were any books that dealt with
homosexuality generally, it was treated as a negative pathology that needed a
cure.
I had found a few books in the library of the high school at which I was teaching at the dawn of the 21st Century that dealt with the topic of homosexuality. Among these were a book on debate topics with essays on the pros and cons of various controversial topics including Homosexuality; a book on AIDS where all the heterosexual couples were in normal relationships with some minor varying details making their exposure to HIV innocent, while the sole Gay teen had decided on a life of promiscuity involving a lot of older men and obviously was not an innocent victim, but a person who got what was coming to him; and one where a conservative televangelist treated the topic of teen sex with cautions about those abominations that might lead them astray. But as far as any history, biography, or work of fiction not related in any way to sex with a positive representation of a Gay character, unlike such books involving heterosexuals, there was nothing.
And, although anti-Gay websites were freely accessed in schools by students as computers became available in school libraries, anything positive about Gay people was flagged as inaccessible by school district web content filters being labeled with the generic “sex, or “sex related” as the reason.
To
rectify this, money was raised from individuals and organizations within the
Oklahoma City Gay Community so one copy each of the books “Stonewall”, by David
Carter and “Forgotten Profit: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin” by John
D‘Emilio could be bought for each high school in Oklahoma City, and presented
to the School Board in the summer of 2005 as a gift to cover this void.
With two
shopping bags filled with books bound in pairs by rainbow ribbon, one set for
each high school, members of the Community presented the books to the Board at
one of its public meetings.
The books
had been chosen because of their historical value, and because there was
nothing in either that could be even remotely objectionable, with the target
audience being high school students so as to avoid any possibility that someone
could accuse the books of being recruitment tools from which children would
need protection. The books would be only for high school students, and, being
histories, were relevant to the curriculum.
They were
not sensational.
Both
books contained flawed individuals whose errors were not glossed over, so it
was not a question of presenting a false, rosy picture, but one that was
realistic and at times embarrassing.
We
decided on a public presentation as opposed going to the individual schools as
a way to make sure the books were not just silently put in a closet somewhere
with no central person or department to keep after to get the books on the
shelves if it ever came to that.
Various members of the Gay Community spoke to the Board about the importance of such books, and how information may not only have helped the speakers make better decisions, but might help the students avoid some of the pitfalls involved in figuring out on their own what it meant to be Gay and where they fit into the big picture.
I had attended many Board meetings, and the procedure for the Community Comments part of the agenda had always been first come, first served. However, the night of the book presentation the acting chair grouped people according to topics, listing the book donation last even though I had been the first person to sign up to speak. Usually at Board meetings when any one group and its members spoke and finished their business, those people and those who were with them left. To have artificially placed us last, ignoring the Board‘s own procedure, guaranteed that when we got up to present the books the audience would not be there and we would be addressing ourselves and those Board members who had not left or taken a bathroom break.
This
would deny us both the drama of the moment, and witnesses beyond ourselves and
the Board.
As it
was, due to some confusion experienced by a group called before us, we were
moved ahead of a Union issue only to have the acting chair announce that there
were four speakers, naming only three, and then absenting himself so that after
the third speaker was finished there was a very awkward pause that almost
brought our presentation to a standstill since by procedure the chair announces
the next speaker. Since I was the fourth intended speaker whose name had not
been called, I went to the podium anyway, made my remarks, and presented my set
of books along with the other three speakers who came forward from their seats
with theirs.
The irony
was that the acting chair who gave many people beyond us the impression he was
trying to interfere or at least minimize the book donation was a Black man who
benefited from the work of Bayard Rustin, or he may not have been sitting on
the Board. Yet, obviously being ignorant of who Bayard Rustin was, he tried
mightily to censor us and the presentation.
This was demonstrable ignorance of Black History, and oddly enough fit well into Strom Thurmond‘s attempting to control Black History as he did in 1963, and showed that even supposedly informed people were woefully uninformed about their own history. I was embarrassed for him and his lack of knowledge about someone like Bayard Rustin and his obvious assumption that Rustin was a bad thing.
We did not ask for special treatment, but equal treatment, and did not expect these two books to be treated any differently than any other books. Nor would we accept if they were treated less than any other book.
Before
even presenting the idea of a book donation I had checked on the school
district policy about such donations and found there was none.
The
televised media covered our presentation in a positive way, showing the two
books presented, and asking those responsible their motivation for donating the
books and their hopes for the books‘ impact on students.
The books
were passed on to the administrator in charge of district school libraries.
Convinced that someone would come forward to make some impossibly unfounded and
bizarre claim that the “homosexual agenda” was being promoted in the
schools, and that the “homosexual Lifestyle” was being taught as an
acceptable alternative to Heterosexuality, the director of libraries wanted to
have a few people read the books to see if there was anything to which anyone
might choose to object. Her intention was to anticipate any objections that
might arise by coming up with answers to them before they were voiced.
The
district‘s initial inability to let the book donors know where the books had
ended up when asked a few weeks after their presentation gave the impression
that there may have been some reluctance in accepting the books, and they had
been conveniently lost in the labyrinth of school headquarters. It would have
been a good way to dodge having to deal with them or their donation‘s
aftermath.
When the
books were located, they were just where they were supposed to be, in the
office of a person who wanted the books in the libraries, but who also found
herself facing a possibly awkward and unsought position. The District‘s procedure
for addressing complaints from parents or students about any book in any school
library was applied in anticipation, and when all was said and done, and all
arguments that could be were anticipated, the books went into the libraries
after a unique six month vetting process.
Upon
checking after the date given as the intended day of delivery of the books to
the high school libraries, I found the high school librarians contacted had
received the books with some already having placed them on the shelves. One
newly built high school had the two books as some of the first to be placed on
the new school library‘s shelves.
As with
the Gay History Month displays and other materials that had found less support
in the past, these books did not bring down any storms of fire and brimstone,
and if they were responsible for the loss of souls or any other demonic mayhem,
no one has yet mentioned it.
So learning about Bayard Rustin has been in the
school libraries for 15 years now.
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