Continuing our 1968 Revolution Rewind on From the Vault, this week we hear Civil Rights leader Bayard Rustin. Rustin is perhaps one of the most understated leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. He helped with the formation of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1942, which was conceived as a pacifist organization based on the writings of Henry David Thoreau, and modeled after Mahatma Ghandi’s non-violent resistance against British rule in India. Bayard Rustin would devote his life to the non violent pursuit of equal rights for all.
This episode features historic audio of Bayard Rustin from Pacifica Radio Archives. Five years after organizing the 1963 March on Washington and securing a global audience for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s monumental I Have a Dream address, we’ll listen as Rustin ponders the changing roles for African Americans in society, in a speech entitled The Future of Minorities. Then, we revisit a rare debate between Bayard Rustin and Malcolm X entitled A Choice of Two Roads, where the two leaders discuss the direction of the civil rights movement.
From the Vault is presented as part of the Pacifica Radio Archives Preservation and Access Project.
Archival recordings used in this week’s episode, Bayard Rustin:
BB3014 A Choice of Two Roads MORE INFO
BB3829.16 The Future of Minorities MORE INFO
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