Description
Book SynopsisBayard Rustin was a unique twentieth-century American radical voice. A homosexual, World War II draft resister, and ex-communist, he made enormous contributions to the civil rights, socialist, labor, peace, and gay rights movements in the United States, despite being viewed as an outsider even by fellow activists. Rustin was a humanist who championed the disadvantaged and oppressed, regardless of identity. In Bayard Rustin: American Dreamer, Jerald Podair examines the life and career of a man who shaped virtually every aspect of the modern civil rights movement as a theorist, strategist, and spokesman. Podair begins by covering the period from Rustin''s 1912 birth in West Chester, Pennsylvania, to his 1946 release from federal prison, where he served over two years for draft evasion. After his release, Rustin threw himself into work on behalf of pacifism and racial integration, two goals that, at this stage of his career, fit together almost seamlessly. Podair goes on to examine Rustin
Trade ReviewJerald Podair's lively engaging portrait of a key organizer in the freedom struggle puts Bayard Rustin's behind-the-scenes work out front for a new generation. Illuminating Rustin's struggle to make real America's promise of 'equality and justice for all,' Podair pushes an unsung hero out of the shadows. His work, at once scholarly and widely accessible, adds a biographer's depth to the key conflicts and triumphs of Rustin's complex, exciting, and sobering life story. -- Wesley Hogan, Virginia State University
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Shadowman Chapter 1: Voice of Protest, 1912–1946 Chapter 2: Toward Peace and Racial Justice, 1946–1963 Chapter 3: The March on Washington, 1963 Chapter 4: Coalition Politics and Its Limits, 1963–1969 Chapter 5: The Humanist, 1969–1987 Conclusion: Rustin's American Dreams Documents Bibliographic Essay
