Love d this book! Bayard Rustin is such a great person and getting to learn mode was awesome. This was so well researched

Description
Celebrates the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin, the civil rights leader behind the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

While we can all recall images of Martin Luther King Jr. giving his “I Have a Dream” speech in front of a massive crowd at Lincoln Memorial, few of us remember the man who organized this watershed nonviolent protest in eight short weeks: Bayard Rustin.

This was far from Rustin’s first foray into the fight for civil rights. As a world-traveling pacifist, he brought Gandhi’s protest techniques to the forefront of US civil rights demonstrations, helped build the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led the fight for economic justice, and played a deeply influential role in the life of Dr. King by helping to mold him into an international symbol of nonviolent resistance. Rustin’s legacy touches many areas of contemporary life—from civil resistance to violent uprisings, democracy to socialism, and criminal justice reform to war resistance.

Despite these achievements, Rustin was often relegated to the background. He was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned, and fired from important leadership positions, largely because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era. With expansive, searching, and sometimes critical essays from a range of esteemed writers—including Rustin’s own partner, Walter Naegle—this volume draws a full picture of Bayard Rustin: a gay, pacifist, socialist political radical who changed the course of US history and set a precedent for future civil rights activism, from LGBTQ+ Pride to Black Lives Matter.

Review
Broken up into three parts, this book of essays lays out the history and influence of Bayard Rustin. I finished this book with a greater understanding of Rustin. That said, I wish that some of his writings that were mentioned in the book were included in this book: not everyone who has access to this book will have access to those writings. Further, some of the essays were a tad repetitive, but it did increase the impact of Rustin to others.

This would be an amazing book to add to a classroom as a resource! As someone with no previous background knowledge, this book about Bayard Rustin, edited by Michael G. Long, is a great introduction to the person, his politics, and his beliefs. In these pages, I got to meet a man who was threatened, arrested, imprisoned, and even fired from positions due to being an openly gay man. Through all of the turmoil, he still believed the best path for resistance was non-violence. Talk about rising above!

I really enjoyed getting to know one of the two men who organized the March on Washington, and how much he contributed to the civil rights movement throughout his life. It’s a powerful read and this collection of essays from multiple contributors reveal the life of Rustin. Without giving too much away, this collection is in three parts: Protests, Politics and Partners; Resistance, Reform and Reconciliation; and "What Rustin Means to Me”. I was moved after reading this book and have been recommending it since the first essay.

Too long ignored for being queer and open about it, the life of a Quaker resistor of Wrong and Wickedness was a complicated one. I wish this collection of essays had been edited to reduce the repetition of basic information about him, but appreciate that it was done at all.

I imagine the experience of being friends with Bayard Rustin was pretty fraught...his stadards were very high and his judgments usually spot-on, which combination is uncomfortable for himself and others. This reality played itself out in his double invisibility in gay-rights circles: Blackness and religious belief. He felt he wasn't needed or wanted in that world so, until he fell in love with Walter Naegle at 65, he focused on Black liberation and didn't involve himself in gay rights. The sad part to me is that the man was ahead of his time in his politics, his morals, and his social beliefs, and still deeply internalized both homophobia and misogyny.

If you're utterly unfamiliar with Rustin, this collection of essays will fill you in. Read the way any collection should be, piece by piece over time, the cumulative effect is to bring an unjustly underknown man's contributions to the best things that happened in the era of Civil Rights expansion to light. He is, be aware, not critically examined in these essays. Part three of the collection, "What Rustin Means to Me," is probably my favorite to read because the legacy of this upright, intelligent, unsparing actor on the public stage is dealt with by those whom he has inspired. I suppose anyone who stood up for an unpopular belief because it was right to do so can't hope for a better legacy.

This was a great introduction to Bayard Rustin, his politics and beliefs.

Some of the essays were a bit repetitive, but all were well written. I will definitely dig deeper to learn more about the man behind the movement!

This book is a powerful and very well-done collection of essays by multiple contributors that reveal the many personal and political lives of Bayard Rustin. This is both a celebration of his life and legacy and a critical examination of some of his political viewpoints. Yet some of his limited views are due to context of the time in which he grew up - for example, not addressing intersectionality, turning away from protesting the Vietnam War (even though he refused to serve previously and served prison time for it.) and inherent sexism. But he was a long time pacifist who believed in non-violence for resistance. Even though he played a very influential role in civil rights (from architecting the March on Washington with A. Philip Randolph) and consulting with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was arrested, imprisoned, threatened, and fired from leadership positions largely because he was an openly gay man. This book has a brilliant forward by Clayborne Carson, is extremely well edited by Michael C. Long. The essays are divided into three impactful sections -- Part 1 is on Protests, Politics and Partners. Here we learn about his grandmother as well as A. Philip Randolph, Ella Baker (another unsung hero), MLK Jr., Stokley Carmichael and Malcom X. Part 2 is on Resistance, Reform and Reconciliation, Part 3 is about "What Rustin Means to Me" - and these essays bring forward his legacy and how it is making a difference today. I loved all the sections and this last one was particularly moving to me. I am so glad that not only is Bayard Rustin finally getting his due, we also get to hear from great writers in this collection about what his impact has been in the history of civil rights as well as to them personally. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and NYU Press for an ARC and I left this review voluntarily.

I wish this would have been able to send to my Kindle for ease in reading. I could read it it in portions on my phone, but will likely have to wait until it becomes available to fully read it. Thoughtfully written, the format just made it difficult.

I'm still training myself to look carefully to see if titles are available for Kindle before hitting "request" or "read now." The topic of this book is of great interest to me, but because I do almost all my reading on a kindle, I won't be able to review it.

I will look for this book once it is released. (% starts because that's what I'm hoping it will be.)