Bayard Rustin quotes

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

To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true.

Bayard Rustin

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

Bayard Rustin

Bigotry's birthplace is the sinister back room of the mind where plots and schemes are hatched for the persecution and oppression of other human beings.

Bayard Rustin

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.

Bayard Rustin