Meet Bayard Rustin

Civil rights activist, gay rights advocate, union organizer, pacifist and man of compassion for all in trouble

by Jerald Podair Lawrence University

As I began writing “Bayard Rustin: American Dreamer,” my biography of the 20th-century radical leader and activist, one of my colleagues cautioned me not to “fall in love.” then known as a “public indecency” offense, involving sex with two other men in a parked car.

This, of course, is good advice for any biographer, and I tried to follow it.

But it wasn’t easy, because Bayard Rustin was America’s signature radical voice during the 20th century, and yes, I believe those voices includes that of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whom Rustin trained and mentored.

His vision of nonviolence was breathtakingly broad.

He was a civil rights activist, a labor unionist, a socialist, a pacifist and, later in life, a gay rights advocate.

Today, scholars would call Rustin an intersectionalist, a man who understood the complex effects of multiple forms of discrimination, including racism, sexism and classism.

Roosevelt banning racial discrimination in the nation’s defense industries.

A few years later, King forced him out of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, fearful of the damage the issue of Rustin’s homosexuality could do to his organization.

Early

Days And Activism

Born in West Chester, Pennsylvania, on March 17, 1912, Rustin was one of 12 children raised by their grandparents. It is believed that his devotion to civil rights was formed by his grandmother, whose work with the NAACP resulted in leaders of the Black community, such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Mary McLeod Bethune, visiting the Rustin home during his Quaker upbringing. Rustin was present at the creation of a host of pivotal American liberation movements. He helped found the Congress of Racial Equality and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, two civil rights organizations that were focused on ending the Jim Crow era of racial segregation.

He worked with Black trade unionist A. Philip Randolph on the 1941 March on Washington Movement, which bore fruit in an executive order by President Franklin

Rustin and Randolph worked again in 1948 on a successful campaign to end segregation in the U.S. military under President Harry Truman. A pacifist, Rustin protested World War II by resisting the draft and, as a result, was imprisoned in 1944 as a conscientious objector.

After his release in 1946, Rustin became a major figure for the next two decades in two prominent pacifist organizations, the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the War Resisters League, both of which opposed the use of violence to settle disputes between individuals or nations.

In 1947, he and members of the Congress of Racial Equality planned the Journey of Reconciliation, the first organized effort to desegregate interstate bus transportation in the South.

Role in Montgomery bus boycott

Because of that work to integrate public transportation, Randolph suggested in 1956 that Rustin meet with a young preacher in Alabama who was organizing a bus boycott there.

That meeting with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. during the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1956 changed both men forever.

From then on Rustin advised King on the prin- ciples of Gandhi and nonviolent direct action that —when combined with lawsuits, voter registration drives and lobbying efforts—ultimately led to passage of both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

For Rustin, Black progress depended on politics and economics. To that end, in 1966 Rustin proposed the “Freedom Budget for All Americans” that promised every American employment, an income and access to health care.

His proposal became the template for progressive political activists in the 21st century.

Jobs and freedom

Rustin is best remembered as the organizer and orchestrator of arguably the seminal event in American civil rights history—the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. But it almost did not happen.

Rustin’s homosexuality had always been an issue, and not just to his opponents on the American right or to J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI.

Many progressive activists who were open-minded on matters relating to civil and labor rights were much less so when it came to Rustin’s sexuality.

Rustin had been fired by the Fellowship of Reconciliation after his 1953 conviction in Pasadena, California, on what was

It took the direct intervention of Randolph, Rustin’s lifelong friend and champion, to get King and other major civil rights leaders to agree to his selection as the organizer and orchestrator of the March on Washington in 1963. Rustin then had to survive a denunciation by segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond on the floor of Congress shortly before the march, during which the South Carolina lawmaker read from FBI reports on Rustin’s flirtation with communism—he had belonged to the Communist Party briefly as a young man—and his homosexuality and arrest in Pasadena.

But Rustin’s ability to organize was now too valuable to lose, and this time King stood by him.

As my research shows, King knew that only Rustin, who had spent the previous two decades leading demonstrations and walking picket lines, had the knowledge and experience to move 250,000 people in and out of Washington, D.C., on a hot summer day.

King also knew that Rustin could manage everything in between, including the order of the speakers.

By insisting that King be placed last on the program, Rustin ensured that King would have the final word and maximum dramatic effect. Though Rustin didn’t know it at the time, King’s “I Have a Dream” remarks eventually constituted one of the greatest speeches ever delivered in American history.

Rustin’s internal conflicts

The constituent parts of Rustin’s radical vision were often at odds and difficult to achieve, forcing Rustin into wrenching choices, as I learned during my research.

During World War II, for instance, he chose pacifism over the cause of civil rights when he refused to bear arms against a racist Nazi regime.

During the Vietnam War, he chose socialism over pacifism when he muted his criticism of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s policies in the hope of enacting his Freedom Budget for All Americans.

And in 1968, as a Whiteled teachers union and Black activists struggled for control of New York City’s public education system during the bitter Ocean Hill-Brownsville crisis, Rustin chose labor rights over civil rights and class over race as he lent his support to the union. These choices cost Rustin allies and friendships, as former colleagues who afforded themselves the luxury of one-issue purity denounced him as an apostate, a hypocrite, a turncoat or worse.

But Rustin was none of those. He dedicated his life to helping, as he put it, “peo- ple in trouble,” whomever and wherever they might be. Accordingly, he put himself on the line for democracy advocates all over the world. They included African Americans, Latinos, working men and women, union members, the poor, war critics, anti-nuclear protesters, gays and lesbians, students, leftists, Soviet Jews, and Haitian, Hmong and Afghan refu- gees.

If those allegiances appear to be contradictions, in my view they were of the best kind.

Love for Rustin?

Above all else, Rustin chose to help people in trouble based on their condition, not their identity.

For that he has, if not my love, then my profound respect.

Of all the voices I’ve heard on my journeys through America’s 20th-century history, it is his that resonates most with me. Rustin died in 1987, his radical vision unwavering until the end.

(Jerald Podair, Professor of History, Lawrence University)

(This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.)

Updates that may affect your tax season

by Donald Williams

For New Pittsburgh Courier

It is officially tax season, according to the Internal Revenue Service, which declared that this year’s tax season started on Jan. 23.

It’s that special time of year when people collect their documents to either rush over to their tax preparer or enter in themselves so that they can receive those nice tax refund checks.

The IRS estimates that they will receive more than 168 million filers this year, most of who will be filing before the April 18 tax deadline. They are urging all taxpayers to file electronically with direct deposit to speed up the process of receiving refunds and avoid any possible delays.

However, before you file your taxes there are some new updates that you need to be aware of, such as IRS warns that 2023 tax refunds may be smaller: The IRS released a statement that taxpayers should brace themselves for small tax refunds due to no economic impact payments (or stimulus payments) being released in 2022.

Also, for people with children, the enhanced child tax credit is now gone, leaving parents with a lower tax refund check than what they received for the 2020-2021 filing years.

• Earned Income Tax Credit of Additional Child Tax Credit filers will have to wait: The IRS will not issue refunds involving the Earned Income Tax Credit or Additional Child Tax Credit before mid-February. This gives the agency extra time to review each case to prevent fraud. Taxpayers who qualify for these tax credits should expect

Lifetime achiever: Arnold Donald is a captain in the global world

by Chris King for New Pittsburgh Courier

Arnold Donald possesses two rare, equally enviable and diametrically opposed gifts. He can foresee, prepare for, and ultimately manifest an unlikely and successful future, and he can successfully navigate utterly unforeseeable crises with grace and aplomb.

Someone with his pedigree could point to more than one example of displaying both of these gifts, but the basics must be told.

A son of parents (Hilda Aline Melancon Donald and Warren Joseph Donald Sr.) who had never completed a high school education in a segregated New Orleans, as a Black teenager he declared that he would one day become a general manager at a Fortune 50 science-based global company. Then he did just that, working his way up from intern to many years of leadership positions at Monsanto Company, now Bayer. In more than 20 years at Monsanto he served as a corporate senior vice-president, president of the consumer and nutrition sector, and president of the agricultural sector (the company’s most profitable).

And, as a longtime board member of Carnival Corporation, in 2013 he moved from the consultant role of board oversight to operations chief as president and CEO just in time for the COVID-19 pandemic, which might as well have been designed to destroy the cruise industry, where people congregate closely in indoor spaces for lengthy vacations (with the occasional foray onto deck and to the shore).

During Donald’s tenure as CEO, Carnival’s stock price had nearly doubled, reaching an all-time high of $72.70 per share in January 2018, a moment in time when “COVID” was meaningless and pandemics a subject for history books.

As someone much better known in the world’s board rooms than its living rooms, Donald suddenly found himself in the global news spotlight in his navigation of Carnival, the world’s largest cruise operator, through the pandemic, given that health protocols intended to protect the public also threatened to strangle his company and its entire industry.

Not that someone with a compassionate and ultimately global outlook like Donald would take something like a pandemic personally, but it was quite a gut punch for someone who had been succeeding spectacularly in his new role. During Donald’s tenure as CEO, Carnival’s stock price had nearly doubled, reaching an all-time high of $72.70 per share in January 2018, a moment in time when “COVID” was meaningless and pandemics a subject for history books.

It’s difficult to count how many corporate boards Donald was on when he was steering Carnival through the public health crisis. From leadership roles at Monsanto, he assumed the top job of chairman of Merisant Company, a company he helped form that manufactures global sweetener brands such as Equal and Canderel. Given that sugar substitutes are attractive options for diabetics, among others, it makes sense that he moved on to president and CEO of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International, the world’s largest charitable funder of

Should I accept a $2 million offer for my waterfront property?

Damon, I’m curious to know what your take is on this. Someone is begging me to sell them my waterfront villa that I purchased 4 years ago at $730k. It’s now valued at $1.7 million. He is willing to pay $2 million. There are no more waterfront villas available. Should I hold on to it or cash in?

Damon says: I put this question before my Facebook audience to weigh in. The overall response was 50/50. Half suggested holding the property. The other half suggested selling the property. Below are a few of the responses. After which, I’ll share what I would do if it was me.

I have a friend whose father purchased land for $700. When he passed, he left it to my friend. My friend just sold that property for $2.7 million. We need to quit being concerned with ourselves and teach our children and ourselves how not to be so consumed with things.

~Justine

Cash in (especially if one isn’t using it). The market isn’t going to stay hot forever. That’s an amazing come up and ROI. Put it on the market and let them fight for it. The buyers set the tone for pricing in a hot market. Someone may offer $2.5 million. With hot properties you never know what someone would be willing to pay. If someone offers $2-plus million in CASH, run with it.

~Janeen S., Realtor

In about another 5 to 10 years, it’ll probably be worth twice that. No way I would sell it!

~Terry I’d probably cash it in. That ROI is crazy. Also, waterfront properties nowadays are suffering major losses due to natural disasters and global warming. As much as I wanted to own some waterfront property, I wouldn’t ever do it now.

~Leelah

Damon here: There’s no wrong answer! It’s a matter of personal preference, financial circumstances, and overall financial goals.

It’s an easy decision for me. “RUN ME MY MONEY!” Here’s my reasoning. It’s a vacation/rental property. This property is for leisure and income.

If you had an opportunity to triple your investment in four years and walk away unscathed, would you do it? I think that the majority of people reading this column would give a resounding yes!

That’s essentially what’s happening here. There’s an offer on the table that will give her a 260 percent return on the purchase price of the property. She paid $750k. She has a buyer willing to pay $2 million. That’s nearly three times what she paid for it.

Actually it’s far more than a 3X return when you look at it from a cash on cash return on investment. Chances are there’s a mortgage on this property.

Meaning her true cash investment was down payment, closing cost, and the mortgage payment that was made over that four-year period. You’re probably looking at a $200,000 total out-of-pocket cash investment. Let’s assume there’s a mortgage balance of approximately $600,000. If you sell this property for $2,000,000, after paying off the mortgage, you’ll walk away with approximately $1,400,000. That’s a 700 percent cash on cash return on your investment in only four years. That’s freaking insane. To give you historical perspective, the best performing asset class is stocks. The average return on stocks is 10 percent per year. The average appreciation or increase in value for real estate property year over year is five percent. For a property to increase in value from $750,000 to $2,000,000 in four years, that’s an average annual increase in value of approximately 41 percent per year. Based on historical data, the average appreciation of this property is grossly exaggerated in comparison to the norm. Could it be a real estate bubble in this particular market that has peaked. If so, at some point, there’s only one direction for the value of this property to go. That’s down. Many of the people who responded to this question on my Facebook page stated that the property could go up in value. Sure! That’s possible. It could go up in value. That’s called upside potential. There’s two sides to all investments. Upside potential and downside risk. Downside risk could be vacancy, tenants who are slow to pay rent or refuse to pay rent. Maintenance and upkeep of property—just to name a few. You have to consider both—upside potential and downside risk. In our back and forth conversation, she mentioned long-term rental income is averaging $10k to $12k per month. That’s good rent on a $750,000 property. Poor rent on a $1.7-$2 million property. Monthly rental income should be a minimum of 1 percent of market value. Minimum monthly rent on a $750,000 property should be $7,500 per month. It is currently receiving $10k to $12k. Great! Rental income on a $1.7-$2 million property should be $17,000-$20,000 per month. That makes the $10k to $12k monthly rent currently received not so great.

Again, there’s no wrong answer here.

My opinion in this article is based on what I would do if I woke up with such an offer on the table. She’s considering the offer but she is leaning towards holding on to the property. Her acquisition of this property and other real estate property is a part of her overall retirement plan. She believes that she can get bigger returns investing in real estate than she can investing in the stock market. Considering the fact, she’s observed a 300–700 percent return on investment on this property, it’s going to be hard to convince her otherwise. It’s important to point out. She does both. She invests in real estate and she invests in the stock market.

If she were to sell the property, take the $1.4 million and invest it in the stock market using a diversified investment portfolio, this money would grow to $8.9 million over the next 20 years— her projected retirement year.

Will this property be worth more than $8.9 million 20 years from now? Only time will tell.