Tonight there will be a screening of the documentary, Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, co-sponsored by the Queer Resource Center, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Queer People of Color, Queer Student Alliance and MLK Commemoration Committee. While the Queer Resource Center often screens films regarding LGBT themes, this film is additionally a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
A little-known civil rights activist, Bayard Rustin was intimately involved with the civil rights movement in the 1960s. He organized civil rights marches and protests against the Vietnam War, acted as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s main advisor, and campaigned for gay rights. It was the latter that kept him from becoming as popular a symbol for civil rights as figures such as King and Rosa Parks.
The documentary incorporates video and photographic images of Rustin, the marches he led and the influential people he worked alongside. While the film is for the most part silent and focused on these images, there are also interspersed clips of Rustin speaking, as well as samples of his renowned singing voice.
Deeply inspired by his grandmother’s active role in the NAACP, Rustin grew up with a drive to stand up for his rights. And, while his grandmother was not particularly thrilled with his sexual preferences, she acknowledged them. This, too, gave Rustin the courage to stand up for the rights of both blacks and homosexuals. Even as a teenager, Rustin actively protested the Jim Crow laws.
After moving to New York City to attend college, Rustin was appalled by the Scottsboro case, in which white racism and injustice was readily apparent, and soon thereafter joined the American Communist Party. The ACP at that time acted as a major proponent of civil rights. As can be expected, the group was far from popular in the United States, but this stands as only another example of how radical Rustin was for his time.
Yet Rustin’s life story endures not only as a measure of courage and a fight for justice in the 1960s, but is still relevant today. The fights for racial equality and gay rights are still huge issues in this country, though the two are not as intertwined as they were 50 years ago. Racial and sexual inequalities are also not as obvious as they were in the days of segregation and a more blatant hatred of homosexuality. This makes it an equally difficult fight, though new challenges are present. But Rustin serves as a reminder that equality is always worth fighting for, no matter how difficult.
Directed by Nancy D. Kates and Bennett Singer, Brother Outsider premiered in 2003 and has appeared in dozens of film festivals in the years since, including Sundance Film Festival. It won Best Documentary in six festivals and was nominated in several others. Filmmakers Kates and Singer have worked on numerous other documentaries that focus on human rights issues with Eyes on the Prize II being the most well known.
‘
Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin
Multicultural Center, Smith Memorial Student Union, room 228
Tonight, 7′-9 p.m.
Free
‘