Do you know the name Bayard Rustin? I admit that I did not before watching the new film “Rustin,” which is about one of the unsung leaders of the civil rights movement.
On the day of April 4th, this Day of Sacrifice, this day of the martyrdom and assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we gather together to raise up and pay rightful homage to him, his life and legacy.
As we celebrate International Labor Day, May 1, and pay homage to the awesome sacrifices and costly struggles of Black workers and other workers of the world to get economic justice, it is important to remember A. Philip Randolph’s admonition that the struggle for freedom and justice is always an unfinished fact.
The NAACP plans to highlight 110 years of civil rights history, and the current fight for voting rights, criminal justice reform, economic opportunity and education quality during its 110th national convention now happening in Detroit.
Randolph’s grounding in his own culture enabled him to successfully collaborate with others, including Whites, other labor unions, government officials and politicians. Racial and cultural grounding are prerequisites for effectively working with others and must become part of conversations and strategies to reverse Blacks’ current self-denigrating mindsets and ineffective leadership. That said, the following are highlights in A. Philip Randolph’s quest to improve the quality of life for Blacks and other oppressed people.
Rustin worked with Martin Luther King Jr. as an organizer in 1955 with the Montgomery bus boycott.
Brought Blacks into the Middle Class.
Randolph’s grounding in his own culture enabled him to successfully collaborate with others, including whites, other labor unions, government officials and politicians
