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

More quotes by Bayard Rustin

View all
"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

Belief

"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

Courage

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

- Bayard Rustin

Taking Risks

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

- Bayard Rustin

Facing Fears

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

- Bayard Rustin

Equilibrium

More Adversity Quotes

View all
"Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."

- Joshua J. Marine

Adversity

"The greater the difficulty, the more the glory in surmounting it."

- Epicurus

Adversity

"It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness."

- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Adversity

"The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself—the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us—that’s where it’s at."

- Jesse Owens

Adversity

"If there is no struggle, there is no progress."

- Frederick Douglass

Adversity