Bayard Rustin: The Invisible Activist

"We need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers" -Bayard Rustin Bayard Rustin: The Invisible Activist is a new biography for ages 10 and up. . . To many, the civil rights movement brings to mind protests, marches, boycotts, and freedom rides. They often think of people like Martin Luther King, Jr. or Rosa Parks. They seldom think of Bayard Rustin. Raised by his Quaker grandmother to believe in the value of every human being, Bayard made trouble wherever he saw injustice. As a teenager, he was arrested for sitting in the whites only section of a theater. More arrests followed, for protesting against segregation, discrimination, and war. His belief in nonviolent action as a means for social change gave him a guiding vision for the civil rights movement, which he used to mentor the young Martin Luther King, Jr. When A. Philip Randolph needed the best organizer on the planet, he turned to Bayard Rustin to bring 250,000 people to the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Illustrated with over sixty photos, this book is the product of a unique collaboration between three authors: Bayard's partner of ten years, a professor of religious studies, and a children's book author. Though he is largely ignored in history books, Bayard's ideas and actions will inspire today's young (and not-so-young) readers to be angelic troublemakers.

Jacqueline Houtman is a freelance writer. Her science writing for adults and children has appeared in World Book Science Year, FASEB's Breakthroughs in Bioscience series, and numerous academic and educational publications. Her award-winning novel for young readers, The Reinvention of Edison Thomas (Boyds Mills Press), was chosen for five state reading lists. Houtman is a member of Madison (WI) Monthly Meeting and holds a PhD in Medical Microbiology and Immunology from The University of Wisconsin-Madison. jhoutman.com
 
Walter Naegle was Bayard Rustin's partner for a decade. They met in 1977, when Bayard was working on domestic civil rights issues, international affairs, and human rights advocacy. After graduating from Fordham University, he began working with Bayard at the A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund. When Bayard died in 1987, Walter was instrumental in establishing The Bayard Rustin Fund, a private foundation that promotes Bayard's values and works to heighten awareness of his accomplishments. In 2013 he accepted a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom for Bayard at the White House, one of the first same-sex partners to do so.
 
Michael G. Long is an associate professor of religious studies and peace and conflict studies at Elizabethtown College and is the author or editor of books on civil rights, religion and politics, and peacemaking, including Gay Is Good: The Life and Letters of Gay Rights Pioneer Franklin Kameny (Syracuse University Press); Beyond Home Plate: Jackie Robinson on Life after Baseball (Syracuse University Press); Martin Luther King, Jr., Homosexuality, and the Early Gay Rights Movement (Palgrave Macmillan); I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin's Life in Letters (City Lights); Marshalling Justice: The Early Civil Rights Letters of Thurgood Marshall (Amistad/HarperCollins); and Christian Peace and Nonviolence (Orbis Books). Long holds a PhD from Emory University in Atlanta.