The New York Sun
March 3, 2003

BAYARD RUSTIN: THE WHOLE STORY

Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin" was aired on Martin Luther King Day by PBS. The makers of the documentary have skillfully assembled compelling historical footage to tell the gripping story of one of America's great black civil and human rights leaders and his passionate, inspiring role in the struggle for equality. "Brother Outsider" paints a dynamic portrait of a dedicated, fearless, multi-faceted, and charismatic social activist.

Bayard Rustin was known throughout the civil rights movement as a brilliant strategist and coalition builder, but he has never gained broad recognition outside the movement. This film will begin to rectify that imbalance by offering a general audience its first opportunity to learn of Rustin's pivotal role in the struggle for racial equality.

In 1947, Rustin participated in the journey of Reconciliation, an effort to desegregate interstate buses in the upper South. It was dangerous and could easily have resulted in serious physical injury, but danger never deterred Rustin—not then and not in 25 other arrests. He spent 22 days on a North Carolina chain gang for breaking segregation laws.

"Brother Outsider" depicts Rustin's vital role in the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955 and 1956, led by Martin Luther King Jr. Rustin went to Montgomery to advise King. Most importantly, he instructed King--who was then only 26 years old and new to the civil rights movement--in Ghandi's principles of non-violent direct action. Those principles became the central strategy of the movement and its moral compass. After Montgomery, Rustin remained a key adviser to King for many years.

"Brother Outsider" briefly mentions that A. Philip Randolph, the great African-American labor leader and founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, was Rustin's mentor and teacher. The film delineates Rustin's magnificent role as chief organizer and strategist of the historic March on Washington in 1963.

The film turns to Rustin's next great contribution: He was co-founder with my husband, Norman Hill, and A. Philip Randolph of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, which serves as a bridge between trade unions and the African-American community.

Rustin was the group's first president. The AFL-CIO became more inclusive and welcoming for blacks because of A. Philip Randolph and the institute. The institute established over 150 local affiliates. The A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund also co-founded the Recruitment and Training Program that opened the building trades to minorities and women. Rustin, through the institute, developed coalitions to support union organizing drives including 1199 (hospital workers), the United Federation of Teachers, and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.

With all its indisputable value, "Brother Outsider" is a flawed work, because it does not fit Rustin's civil and human rights activities into the context of his broader political and social philosophy. The film emphasized that Rustin was a proud gay man, which is true. But, of at least equal importance, Rustin was a committed social democrat, and a consistent opponent of tyranny, whether it stemmed from the right or the left. "Brother Outsider" does not make these distinctions. For example, it mentions Rustin's brief flirtation with the Young; Communist League in the late 1930s but does not make clear that he quickly left the Communists in disgust. As a result of his experience, he became a consistent, and principled anti-Communist, even when anti-Communism became unfashionable on the Left.

Rustin's fundamental belief in democracy propelled his opposition to all forms of racism, white or black. He was critical of black nationalist and separatist tendencies in the movement. He also opposed black tyrants in Africa, just as he opposed white colonialism on that continent before independence. In 1975 he and Randolph formed Black Americans in Support of Israel Committee (Basic),which included an extraordinarily wide spectrum of African-American leaders from the civil rights, religious, labor, and academic communities.

Few in the 20th century matched Rustin's principled consistency as an advocate of democracy. He was not a generic activist; he was a principled one. Anyone could say they were "progressive"; Rustin wanted to be sure they meant it. Democracy, equality, and freedom were the preconditions for his support. One had to preserve one's humanity to help humanity. One would not know this about Rustin from watching "Brother Outsider."

The film also neglects to define another key aspect of Rustin's philosophy, which led him to believe that the government must ensure full employment and economic security for all. The film does not mention the Freedom Budget For All Americans, a comprehensive legislative program developed with Leon Keyserling and other economists and proposed to Congress in the late 1960s. The essential relationship that formed Rustin's broad outlook was the one he had with Randolph, who was the mentor and wise father of the civil rights movement. That re lationship is fundamentally missing from "Brother Outsider." It was a long and deep one, lasting through many struggles from the early 1940s to Randolph's death in 1979. Randolph taught Rustin that to achieve racial equality and economic justice, blacks and other minorities needed to form a coalition with organized labor. This was the fundamental precondition for real change. A profound outgrowth of this point of view was in the famous and widely circulated essay Rustin wrote, "From Protest to Politics." In that prophetic article, he pointed out that the problems facing blacks were not merely racial but also economic and political, and he argued that political action must be emphasized in the next phase of the civil rights struggle.

"Brother Outsider" is a fine, sincere film. Its significance lies in introducing an outstanding civil and human rights leader to millions of people. And it captures a little of Rustin's captivating and beguiling personality as well. He was a great speaker, an inspiring singer, a sharp dresser, and a penetrating wit. Midge Decter comments in the film that Rustin always bore his social activism "from a rakish angle." No doubt, Rustin was one of a kind. He was unforgettable. This documentary is a promising beginning. What is needed now is a second film, one that encompasses the totality of Rustin's life, and the social, philosophical, and political ideas that were its underpinning.

Ms. Hill is a founding national board member of the A. Philip Randolph Institute and a veteran labor and civil rights leader.