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Quote by Bayard Rustin

“I am not going to stress the usual argument that the police habitually mistreat Negroes. Every Negro knows this. There is scarcely any black man, woman, or child in the land who at some point or other has not been mistreated by a policeman. (A young man in Watts said, "The riots will continue because I, as a Negro, am immediately considered to be a criminal by the police and, if I have a pretty woman with me, she is a tramp even if she is my wife or mother.")”

Quote by Bayard Rustin

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

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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

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“Such proposals may seem impractical and even incredible. But what is truly impractical and incredible is that America, with its enormous wealth, has allowed Watts to become what it is and that a commission empowered to study this explosive situation should come up with answers that boil down to voluntary actions by business and labor, new public relations campaigns for municipal agencies, and information-gathering for housing, fair employment, and welfare departments. The Watts manifesto is a response to realities that the McCone Report is barely beginning to grasp. Like the liberal consensus which it embodies and reflects, the commission's imagination and political intelligence appear paralyzed by the hard facts of Negro deprivation it has unearthed, and it lacks the political will to demand that the vast resources of contemporary America be used to build a genuinely great society that will finally put an end to these deprivations. And what is most impractical and incredible of all is that we may very well continue to teach impoverished, segregated, and ignored Negroes that the only way they can get the ear of America is to rise up in violence.”

RacismProtestRebellionAfrican AmericansSystemic RacismRiotsWatts RebellionWatts Riots
Book:Down the Line: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin
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“In the middle of May an L.A. cop stopped a black man named Leonard Deadwyler for speeding through Watts. He stuck his gun in the driver's-side window — 'to attrack the driver's attention,' he later testified. He also claimed the car suddenly lurched forward, causing his gun to discharge. Leonard Deadwyler slumped into the lap of his wife and muttered his last words — 'But she's having a baby' — as his two-year-old son looked on from the backseat. He had been speeding her to the nearest hospital, miles away; there was no hospital in Watts — an area twice the size of Manhattan.”

Civil RightsPolice BrutalityWatts RebellionWatts RiotsWattsLeonard Deadwyler
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“John Murphy amefariki dunia. Ndege aliyotoka nayo hapa, Dar es Salaam, ndiyo aliyotoka nayo Paris na ndiyo hiyo iliyoanguka katika mazingira ya kutatanisha. Watu waliobahatika kuing’amua fununu hii ni wachache na ambao hivi sasa hawajiwezi kabisa, akiwemo kamishna wetu wa kanda Profesa Mafuru. Profesa yuko mahututi. Ameshtuka baada ya kusikia taarifa hizo katika redio ya hapa. Yuko chini ya uangalizi mkali wa madaktari. Mungu aiweke roho ya John Murphy, shujaa wa karne, mahali pema peponi. Bwana alitoa na Bwana ametwaa. Jina la Bwana lihimidiwe.”

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