Saturday, February 4, 2017, noon to 3 p.m.
Olympia Friends Meetinghouse
3201 Boston Harbor Road NE
Olympia, WA 98506-2800
Bayard Rustin was raised by his Quaker grandmother. In high school he protested segregation at a hometown restaurant and was arrested for sitting in the whites only section of a theater. Rustin’s belief in nonviolent action as a means for social change gave him a guiding vision for the civil rights movement. He helped A. Philip Randolph plan a March on Washington in June, 1941. Abraham Muste, executive secretary of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, who had also been involved in planning that march, then appointed Rustin as FOR’s secretary for student and general affairs. Rustin met Martin Luther King Jr. in 1956 after traveling to Montgomery, Alabama, to assist with the boycott of the city’s segregated bus system, and is credited with helping to mold the younger King into an international symbol of nonviolence.
Bayard Rustin was the primary organizer of the 1963 March on Washington.
Despite these achievements, Rustin was silenced, threatened and fired from leadership positions – sometimes because of his uncompromising political beliefs, but more often because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era. BROTHER OUTSIDER reveals the price that Rustin paid for this openness, chronicling both the triumphs and setbacks of his remarkable 60-year career.
This free event was sponsored by the Oympia Friends (Quakers) Meeting’s Peace and Social Justice Subcommittee on Institutional Racism.
The resource packet shared at this event which was put together by PFLAG Olympia is available here: Tapestry – PFLAG-Olympia’s 02-19-2010 Outreach Packet for African-American History Month (PDF format)
Questions? Contact Gabi Clayton, 360-888-5291
http://olympiafriends.org
Download this event flyer in a full 8.5″x11″ page and a 4-up on 8.5″x11″ page (both in PDF format) here by clicking on the links or on these images:
