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If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end.
Bayard Rustin
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Bayard Rustin
Age: 74 †
Born: 1912
Born: January 1
Died: 1987
Died: January 1
Activist
Civil Rights Advocate
Lgbtiq+ Rights Activist
Politician
Trade Unionist
Westchester
Pennsylvania
Ends
Democratic
Become
Building
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Democracy
Without
Anyone
Well
Society
Must
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Mean
Process
Discriminate
Means
Discrimination
More quotes by Bayard Rustin
Both morally and practically, segregation is to me a basic injustice. Since I believe it to be so, I must attempt to remove it. There are three ways in which one can deal with an injustice. (a) One can accept it without protest. (b) On can seek to avoid it. (c) One can resist the injustice non-violently. To accept it is to perpetuate it.
Bayard Rustin
People will never fight for your freedom if you have not given evidence that you are prepared to fight for it yourself.
Bayard Rustin
We are all one - and if we don't know it, we will learn it the hard way.
Bayard Rustin
Conscription for war is inconsistent with freedom of conscience, which is not merely the right to believe but to act on the degree of truth that one receives, to follow a vocation which is God-inspired and God-directed.
Bayard Rustin
Surely, I must at all times attempt to obey the law of the state. But when the will of God and the will of the state conflict, I am compelled to follow the will of God.
Bayard Rustin
If we desire a society in which men are brothers, then we must act towards one another with brotherhood. If we can build such a society, then we would have achieved the ultimate goal of human freedom.
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. . .
Bayard Rustin
If I do not fight bigotry wherever it is, bigotry is thereby strengthened. And to the degree that it is strengthened, it will, thereby, have the power to turn on me.
Bayard Rustin
We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers.
Bayard Rustin
God does not require us to achieve any of the good tasks that humanity must pursue. What God requires of us is that we not stop trying.
Bayard Rustin
Let us be enraged about injustice, but let us not be destroyed by it.
Bayard Rustin
To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true.
Bayard Rustin
Every indifference to prejudice is suicide because, if I don’t fight all bigotry, bigotry itself will be strengthened and, sooner or later, it will return on me.
Bayard Rustin
Twenty-five, 30 years ago, the barometer of human rights in the United States were black people. That is no longer true. The barometer for judging the character of people in regard to human rights is now those who consider themselves gay, homosexual, lesbian.
Bayard Rustin
The organizers and perpetuators of segregation are as much the enemy of America as any foreign invader.
Bayard Rustin
I believe in social dislocation and creative trouble.
Bayard Rustin
When you're wrong, you're wrong. But when you're right, you're wrong anyhow.
Bayard Rustin
I believe there are certain types of movements which cannot be married.
Bayard Rustin
Martin Luther King, with whom I worked very closely, became very distressed when a number of the ministers working for him wanted him to dismiss me from his staff because of my homosexuality.
Bayard Rustin
The proof that one truly believes is in action.
Bayard Rustin
