I knew about the march on Washington D. C. on August 28, 1963 to bring people together to walk for freedom and jobs.  The photographs of nearly one hundred thousand people  surrounding the Washington Monument made a tremendous impact . I was proud that so many Americans could peacefully come together and have their say without violence. But I didn’t know who organized it.  Not until I read Larry Dane Brimner’s book “We Are One:  The Story of Bayard Rustin.”

Grandparents

Bayard Rustin was raised by his grandparents – Julia a Quaker and Janifer who had been born a slave.  One day when Rustin complained to his grandmother about the racial injustice he witnessed, she challenged him “to use his mind and talents to find solutions.”

Experiment

Rustin made his first attempt after speaking at a meeting in Indianapolis.  He stopped at a small diner for a hamburger.  The owner refused to serve him because she said whites would not eat at a diner where blacks were seated.  Rustin asked the owner to join him in an experiment.  He asked her to serve him a hamburger and told her he would leave it untouched for fifteen minutes.  During that time if no whites sat down in the restaurant, Rustin promised to leave.  The experiment was a success. During the fifteen minutes, many whites entered the diner and didn’t seem to notice Rustin.  At the end of their experiment, the owner served Rustin another hot hamburger.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Rustin was instrumental in encouraging Martin Luther King to form an organization that would encourage nonviolent protests.  Hence the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was formed and King became its first leader.  In 1963, President John F. Kennedy introduced a civil rights bill before congress and many black leaders felt it was time for a large scale, non-violent protest.  They chose Washington D.C. as their site for the demonstration and Rustin was asked to organize it.

Brimner’s book is well researched and masterfully presented. I highly recommend it.  He has chronicled the life of a man that young people can learn from.