Our guest author is Walter Naegle, a partner of Bayard Rustin from 1977 to 1987, co-author of “A Rioter for Justice: The Story of Bayard Rustin, the Man Behind the March on Washington”and historical consultant for the film “Oxidation.”
Last November, the Netflix drama documentary “Rustin” brought the name of social justice activist Bayard Rustin into the homes of millions around the world. The film, released by Higher Ground Productions (founded by Barack and Michelle Obama), featured an award-winning performance by Colman Domingo, who brought Rustin’s brilliance, integrity and creativity to life. The plot centers on Rustin’s organization of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, perhaps the most iconic demonstration in American history. The March was organized with remarkable speed and, according to Ernest Green, a member of Rustin’s staff that summer, without cell phones, fax machines or computers. “This was all organized on 3 x 5 cards that Bayard had in his back pocket.”1 Green, the first black graduate of Little Rock’s Central High School, later worked with Rustin on the Recruitment and Training Program, a pioneering effort to increase minority membership in unions. He then served as deputy secretary of labor in the Carter administration.
The March was a classic example of coalition building, a coming together of forces with somewhat divergent interests but a common goal, in this case the advancement of civil rights for African Americans, particularly in the areas of labor and employment. Originally called the March on Washington for Jobs, the “Freedom” element was added to rally support for the flawed but important civil rights bill proposed by President John F. Kennedy. It was also a recognition of the courage shown by civil rights advocates who had faced a brutal backlash during that spring and summer.
The labor movement was a key element in the coalition, particularly the United Auto Workers union, whose leader, Walter Reuther, addressed the crowd of 250,000. The AFL-CIO did not officially endorse the March, but union members had a significant presence on the Washington Mall that day. Teachers, autoworkers, electricians, garment workers, and others traveled to Washington on planes, buses, and trains to see history being made. Many called Penn South, the affordable housing complex built by the International Women’s Garment Workers Union in New York City, home. Rustin himself was a resident, as were some of his young employees portrayed in the film: Rachelle Horowitz, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and sisters Joyce and Dorie Ladner. Two others, Norman Hill and Tom Kahn, later moved to Penn South. Also featured in Rustin was Cleveland Robinson, a leader from District 65, who was named Administrative Director of the March. In 1957, Robinson spoke at the Freedom Prayer Pilgrimage calling for unity in the fight for civil rights.
The success of the March led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but the issue of jobs did not receive the attention it deserved. Indeed, some leaders of the movement seemed to overlook the connection between civil rights and labor, despite the fact that A. Philip Randolph, the director of the March, was an important voice in the labor movement, having organized the country’s first African-American union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. James Farmer, director of the Congress of Racial Equality, later said that “Bayard’s commitment is to labor, not to the black man,” as if one had to choose between the two.2 But Randolph and Rustin understood that “freedom” meant little without access to decent employment at a living wage that could lift blacks out of poverty. Under the auspices of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, they published “A Budget of Liberty for All Americans” in 1966 “in recognition that poverty and deprivation, like the denial of the right to vote, erode human freedom and democracy… Both materially and spiritually, a society afflicted by poverty deprives all its citizens of security and well-being.”3 The Freedom Budget was a serious plan to budget resources from 1966 to 1975 to achieve “freedom from want.” Although widely publicized and widely advertised, funds were never allocated to implement its recommendations.
Six decades later, much has changed for the better, despite efforts to turn back the clock. Racism, in the codified, raw form it once was, is now “denounced” as un-American. Homophobia, which long denied Bayard Rustin the leadership roles he deserved and threatened to derail the March itself, is seen as equally unacceptable, though not as universally. As the LGBTQ+ rights movement began to emerge, individual unions began passing resolutions banning discrimination based on sexual orientation, and today Pride At Work is a powerful voice within the AFL-CIO. Randi Weingarten (AFT), Stuart Appelbaum (RWDSU), and Mary Kay Henry (SEIU, retired) serve the cause of workers without hiding their queer identities.
I recently had the privilege of attending the AFT convention in Houston. Rachelle Horowitz, a longtime colleague and friend of Bayard, was this year’s recipient of the Bayard Rustin Human Rights Award. She began working with Bayard as the Montgomery Bus Boycott neared victory. She stayed with him—demonstrating, organizing, sometimes risking arrest—while working for a variety of labor-related organizations. Sixty years ago she was arrested during the opening of the New York World’s Fair. She, along with Bayard, Jim Farmer, Tom Kahn, Michael Harrington, and others, organized a sit-in to protest the lack of jobs for minority workers. After working with Bayard during the early years of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, she left to become the AFT’s first political affairs director. Rachelle doubted that she deserved the award, but in my brief comments I observed that she embodied the transition from protest to politics that Bayard had made during the 1960s. This does not mean abandoning protest as a tool when it is necessary, but rather using political power to bring about the change that protest demands.
The progress we’ve made over the past sixty-one years can be seen as a product of the 1963 March on Washington, as it was that protest that inspired the social justice movements that followed, giving people a sense of what we can achieve politically when we’re united in a progressive coalition. This election year, we’re faced with attempts to restrict voter access, limit civil liberties, limit the power of unions, roll back progress for the LGBTQ+ community, and deny women the health care they need. We can’t go back.
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1. Ernest Green speaking in “Brother Outsider, The Life of Bayard Rustin.” Question Why Films, 2003.
2. James Farmer, quoted in Rustin’s obituary published in the New York Times on August 25, 1987
3. “A Budget of Liberty for All Americans.” Introduction by A. Philip Randolph. Published in 1966 by the A. Philip Randolph Institute.
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On the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, the Shanker Institute released a series of lesson plans and materials developed by leading AFT educators about this historic event for use by K-12 educators across the country.
