Quotes from Bayard Rustin

The 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. . .

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 belief in the oneness of the human family.

People will never fight for your freedom if you have not given evidence that you are prepared to fight for it yourself.

When I say I love Eastland, it sounds preposterous--a man who brutalizes people. But *you* love him or you wouldn't be here. You're going to Mississippi to create social change--and you love Eastland in your desire to create conditions which will redeem his children. Loving your enemy is manifest in putting your arms not around the man but around the social situation, to take power from those who misuse it--at which point they can become human too