Found this awesome quotes in a NPR story about Bayard Rustin, who is one of my personal heroes. The whole post is worth reading, so check it out.
“What Rustin took away from Randolph, especially, is the recognition that economic issues and racial justice issues are completely intertwined,” says his biographer, John D’Emilio.
In an effort to discredit the march, segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond took to the Senate floor, where he derided Rustin for being a communist, a draft dodger and a homosexual. Ironically, author D’Emilo says, it became a rallying point — for the civil rights leaders
Rustin wanted to move the civil rights agenda from protesting to politics and to work within the system — blacks and whites together — to create jobs and other opportunities. His effort fell flat, stymied by a more militant generation and the dominant issue of the times, the Vietnam War. Rustin said, “It has split the civil rights movement down the middle. It has caused many white people who were in it to say, ‘That must wait now until we stop Vietnam.’ “
The lesbian and gay community is making great strides forward towards Equality. We see this especially clear looking at the growing acceptance of same-sex marriage. But I wonder, are there more lessons to be learned from the past and work of greats like Rustin? If we fail today, to grasp and address the interconnectivity of oppression will our discrete victories leave others still fighting to get out from under a greeter oppression of inequality?