As a gay African American, Quaker civil rights activist, Bayard Rustin faced discrimination his entire life, even, his longtime partner Walter Naegle reminds us, among fellow Friends—not always blatantly homophobic, “but… there was always this kind of subtle undertone: well, what do we do with Bayard?”
How did he stand up to such prejudices? “Bayard believed in the oneness of the human family, in the brotherhood and sisterhood of all people,” Walter says. “He believed in the power of nonviolence which comes out of that belief in the oneness of all people. . . . He saw everybody as equal in the eyes of the Divine.”
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