Happy Birthday Bayard Rustin!

Today is the birthday of one of our greatest unsung heros in political rights and civil liberties. This weekend in going through old papers, I found the invitation to the memorial service in New York for Bayard when he died in 1987. Bayard's photograph hangs behind my desk as it has since he died.

Next year will be the 100th anniversary of Bayard's birth. Brother Outsider, Bayard was black, gay and a pacifist in a country which despised all three. I have never met a person who could come close to the organizational genius of that man. He could take groups with such desparate agendas and wield them together to form a common purpose.

A master collector, he had unerring taste. Every time I ever tried to find a painting in Haiti that would top his judgement I always failed. He said that as I got older my eye for art would get better as good as his. It never has and never will.

Once when we were in Grenada after the American invasion, I discovered a gallery with the paintings of Geoffrey Holder's brother, a superb artist from Trinidad. Every day while I was there I would walk over to the gallery. For the years of the revolution, tourists never visited the island so these paintings were kept at incredibly low prices for their worth, except I didn't have the money. Finally, Bayard got annoyed and finally said,"You should always go into debt for art,you'll never regret it. Buy the damn things." I didn't and have always regretted it--they represented some of the best Caribbean painting to this day.

I only became the executive director of Freedom House because Bayard supported me and urged me to do it. And frankly after he died,I felt the spirit of the place never recovered, despite the best efforts of a talented staff. Bayard was always good for dropping in unexpectedly to give good advice. Exasperated by someone I wanted to fire, Bayard reminded me,"There is a use for everyone. Remember that."

His death was totally unexpected and shocking. His partner Walter Nagel and I accompanied Bayard to Haiti on a fact-finding mission. He was supposed to return to New York and then fly on to Detroit for a speech. Bayard was in fine form and good health during the whole trip. We returned to New York and Walter and Bayard took a cab back to their apartment and we all felt that the mission was accomplished. A day or so later I received a call from Walter that "We've lost Bayard." He had a ruptured appendix I recall and died at the hospital. It was as if the world opened up and swallowed us.

Many people and organizations have claimed Bayard as their own and they have every right to. He was an extraordinary man. And there are few just causes he didn't actively support. He still visits in my dreams.

There is a photo of a natty Bayard in a yellow sports car. Whenever I am making a major decision, there comes a time when I dream of Bayard, who pulls up in the sportcar, turns to me and says "Move On." and drives down the road out of view.

In the last few months, I have had the "pleasure" of watching (via Youtube) Bayard get arrested in various civil rights marches. Near the end of his life,he appeared on a local New York Talk Show where he talked about the police dogs, the fire hoses and the beatings. Then he said, "But it was fun." "Fun?" the moderator asked. "Yes, the cause was just and we knew we were going to win. That's what I consider fun."

Thanks to Bayard I know what to do when police release teargas and where to position myself if police charge a demonstration.

Today, he would be busy juggling trips to Wisconsin, Michigan and Egypt. He was a loyal trade unionist and used his position at the A. Philip Randolph Institute to organize voter drives for African-Americans. One of the ironies was that while Bayard and Norman Hill did this, Jesse Jackson got all the credit.

His life was an incredible journey and I will always treasure being along on part of it. One of Bayard's great legacies is that he cultivated a host of young talented people who would go on and play constructive roles in many organizations. He found something in everyone of them and maybe he was right,"Everyone has a use." or better purpose.

Happy Birthday, Bayardo

Oh , Puh-lease