I was just reading a complex account of Bayard Rustin, The dead end of despair: Bayard Rustin, the 1968 New York school crisis, and the struggle for racial justice by Daniel Perlstein. In fact, I just posted a
revamped essay using a few of his quotes and philosophy to make a point about today's protests and legislative imperatives.
Although I wasn't convinced that Rustin had become as removed or distant from his commitment to peace and social justice as the author suggests, I found it fascinating
how Mr. Rustin came up against the same entrenched resistance to change and progress when he attempted to forge an alliance between Labor and his Civil Rights agenda which was rooted in economic justice more than it focused on the racial disparities his counterparts in the movement were pushing for.
Rustin had reasoned that the notion of many black leaders that the 'community' could better look after its own needs -- as the system had not been at all accommodating -- was a weak substitute for what could be achieved within the system by forging alliances and remaining engaged in the political arena.
from the essay: (
http://www.nyc.gov/html/cchr/justice/downloads/pdf/the_... )
"Even within the black community, Rustin argued, the separatist fantasy impeded social equality. Discounting working-class proponents of community control, Rustin charged that the leadership of the fight for the Negro to completely take over the schools in the ghetto is not the working poor ... it is not the proletariat...."
"Community control was ineffective as well as wrong. Relying on a lumpenized "black slum proletariat" that lacked the leverage of an industrial working class to exact concessions from society, Black Power invocations of anti-colonial struggle in the ghetto could not "create the preconditions for successful, or even authentic, revolution.... Before we are permitted to impose our will on the majority of Americans we will be crushed." Community control, Rustin concluded, constituted "a giant hoax ... being perpetrated upon black people by conservative and 'establishment' figures." It epitomized "the opposite of self-determination, because it can lead only to the continued subjugation of blacks.""
"Educators and black parents alike needed to realize that a local school board without "real power, democracy, and the funds to carry out new programs" could not "substantially affect the educational system." And even real power and money would not be enough. "Unless there is a master plan to cover housing, jobs, and health, every plan for the schools will fall on its face.""
"The resources needed to initiate such a master plan, Rustin added, could only be secured "by a unified black movement joining with other progressive social forces to form a coalition that represents a majority of the population." Because quality of life is determined by "the economic and social nature of our institutions," blacks needed to ally themselves with the group that most forcefully advocated the democratization of economic and social life-organized labor.""
In his effort to build a labor-civil rights coalition, Rustin was caught between the demands of the grass-roots activists he hoped to lead and the white allies he sought to nurture," the essay concludes. Of course, the establishment wasn't at all ready to accept blacks or their movement. Labor's 'grassroots' was particularly hostile to minorities. Rustin had reasoned that any incremental concession made by the establishment was justification enough for associating with them which increasingly put him at odds with those blacks who were pressing for something more than the meager concessions Rustin was soliciting.
In fact, along the lines of what you wrote, I read where Dr. King had actually helped Mr. Rustin in negotiations to end the riots and unrest following an incident where a white police lieutenant killed a black ninth grader on his way to summer school in, I think, Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Rustin witnessed the riots and assisted with those bloodied by police. He tried to urge blacks to nonviolence and he was, himself, attacked and ridiculed by some of the protestors. Rustin found his way into negotiations with the New York mayor, but as blacks in the streets were demanding accountability for the police brutality, Rustin, enlisted the help of Dr. King in negotiating a far less concession of a promise to seek money for a jobs program. Dr. King and others in the civil rights movement reportedly felt like the unrest in NY would hurt the image of the movement and were anxious to put a lid on the protests which had escalated into violence.
I'm heartened to read the account you provided which suggests that Dr. King had decided to take his advocacy to a higher plane. I'm reminded of how difficult it is for folks to remain focused and determined in these protests in the face of conciliatory moves which fall short of their demands.
I'm also feeling my age when I think of trying to reconcile all of the different interests and opinions among protestors about message, organization, targets, and goals. Most folks don't realize just how 'young' Martin was at the time. I'm in admiration of anyone who commits to such a movement. I saw a report where one OWS protest was struggling to 'insert a discourse of structural inequalities into the movement.' Whew!
Thanks for reading and responding in such an informative fashion. You never disappoint.