Bayard Rustin

"My activism did not spring from my being gay, or, for that matter, from my being black. Rather, it is rooted fundamentally in my Quaker upbringing and the values that were instilled in me by my grandparents who reared me."

- Bayard Rustin

"When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him."

- Bayard Rustin

"The organizers and perpetuators of segregation are as much the enemy of America as any foreign invader."

- Bayard Rustin

"We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers."

- Bayard Rustin

"To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true."

- Bayard Rustin

"We are all one — and if we don’t know it, we will learn it the hard way."

- Bayard Rustin