Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Bayard Rustin

Quote by Bayard Rustin

“Civil disobedience is urged not to destroy the United States but because the government is now poorly organized to achieve democracy. The aim of such a movement always will be to improve the nature of the government, to urge and counsel resistance to military Jim Crow in the interest of a higher law--the principle of equality and justice upon which real community and security depend.”

Quote by Bayard Rustin

Book:Down the Line: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin
Create image

Work

Down the Line: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Bayard Rustin
Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin was a prominent African American civil rights activist who played a significant role in the American civil rights movement. He was a strategist and advisor to many civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr. Rustin was a key figure in the organization of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, one of the largest political protests in U.S. history. He was also a leader in the gay rights movement and advocated for nonviolent protest and civil disobedience. more

You May Also Like

“When there is no process, people lose hope that their voices will be heard. And then they take action, even if there's no legal route to do so. But this action might not be the one they really want to take. Perhaps they want to have a community-wide conversation about a monument or make some changes to it. Understanding and reconciliation can happen in many ways - but when authorities refuse to listen to calls for removal, some people will think they have no choice but to topple a monument.”

ProcessProtestAmerican HistoryReconciliationCivil DisobedienceLegal SystemMonumentsIconoclastia
Book:Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America's Public Monuments
Create image

“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season.”

OrderFreedomRightsTensionExtremismCivil Disobedience
Author:Martin Luther King Jr.
Create image

“Democracy is not simply a license to indulge individual whims and proclivities. It is also holding oneself accountable to some reasonable degree for the conditions of peace and chaos that impact the lives of those who inhabit one’s beloved extended community.”

PeaceLeadershipDemocracyHuman RightsImmigrationVotingAccountabilityPolitical PhilosophyPeace On EarthLeadership CharacteristicsCivil DisobedienceRight To VoteGun ViolenceCivic DutyPresidential ElectionDemocratic ProcessSustainable LivingPolice ReformPolitical TheoryGun LawsPolitical RightsCommunitiesPolitical CommentaryCivic ResponsibilityBeloved CommunityPolitical ArtPostered Poetics By AberjhaniCivic VirtueEmigrantsNational History Day2016 Presidential RaceLeadership TheoryPolice CultureDiscourse On A Better WorldPolitical ChaosPolitical EthicsPracticing DemocracyDiscourse On DemocracyDiscourse On FreedomEditorials On DemocracyPolitical PoetsPolitical PostersTeaching Democracy
Book:Splendid Literarium: A Treasury of Stories, Aphorisms, Poems, and Essays
Create image

“If any think that their influence would be lost there, and their voices no longer afflict the ear of the State, that they would not be as an enemy within its walls, they do not know how much truth is stronger than errors, nor how much more eloquently and effectively he can combat injustice who has experienced a little in his own person. Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence.”

InjusticeVotingCivil Disobedience
Book:Civil Disobedience
Create image