FULL : Bayard Rustin: Angelic Troublemaker

Workshop number: 
2
Stephen
McNeil
Audience
Who may register: 
Open to All (adult & high school)
part time-attenders welcome
Time breakdown
Worship/worship-sharing: 
20%
Lecture: 
30%
Discussion: 
30%
Experiential Activities: 
20%
Description
Leader Experience: 

Led workshops on Friends and Japanese, Japanese Internment at Takoma (2006), Quakers and Native Americans (2007), and Friends and Genocide (2008). Organizer of Friends to attend play on Rustin and premier of Brother Outside documentary. Part of Transforming Quaker presentation on Rustin at 2011 Pacific Yearly Meeting.

Short Description: 

Explore the life and times of Friend Bayard Rustin (centennial birthday this year) with handouts from biographers and selected writings by Rustin. Guests who knew Rustin will join us for topics ranging from peace activism to Quakerism to labor and civil rights to how Bayard’s sexuality affected his life and legacies.

Long Description: 

The workshop will explore the life and times of Friend Bayard Rustin whose centennial birthday is in 2012. Participants are encouraged to read either Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin by John D’Emilio or Bayard Rustin: Troubles I’ve Seen by Jervis Anderson, but there will be handouts from other biographers as well as selected writings by Rustin. FGC’s Black Fire has a good selection of Rustin’s writings. Hyperion’s Books for Children has an excellent young adult biography Bayard Rustin: Behind the Scenes of the Civil Rights Movement.

We will cover topics ranging from peace activism to Rustin’s Quakerism to labor and civil rights role as well as engaging in a discussion on how Bayard’s sexuality affected both his life and legacies. We will open sessions with worship sharing (length depends on number of participants but no less than 20 minutes) based on questions developed and based on readings.

30% of the time will be lecture, 30% of the time discussion with guests and one another, 20% of the time interactive (with planning for 2013 March on Washington 50th event for Friends and possibly a First Day School interactive lesson plan), and 20% will be worship/worship sharing.

Besides a viewing the documentary Brother Outsider and listening to cds of Bayard Rustin as a musician/singer, we may have the opportunity to discuss concerns and ideas with, among others,Mandy Carter, African American lesbian organizer with the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington (2013), David McReynolds, War Resisters League co-activist of Bayard Rustin, Wendy Chmielewski of Swarthmore College Peace Collection, and author of a paper on the writing of Speak Truth to Power, and Walter Naegle, Bayard Rustin’s lover.

In 2011 the American Friends Service Committee Board republished online its seminal work Speak Truth to Power with the following historical note:
“In September, 2010, the Board of Directors of the American Friends Service Committee approved a minute restoring the name of Bayard Rustin as one of the principal authors of Speak Truth to Power. In 1954, Bayard requested that his name not be included in the list of authors, without stating a reason…. “

Other biographers have written that Rustin did state a reason. We will explore where the Truth lies.

There are two practical outcomes from the workshop: those interested will be asked to work on a lesson plan for First Day Schools that will introduce the life and witness of Rustin to young Friends and overall we will discuss a plan for Friends’ involvement in marking the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington that will highlight Bayard Rustin’s role.