Mandy Carter: MOBILIZE – Bayard Rustin and the 1963 March on Washington

Mandy Carter presents:

Resource Center for Nonviolence

612 Ocean Street, Santa Cruz

Mandy Carter will speak, show an excerpt of the award winning film “Brother Outsider, the Life of Bayard Rustin,” and pose questions for our work for justice and human rights today.

In the 50th anniversary year of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, what does that massive mobilization mean for our work for justice and freedom today? What does the life of Bayard Rustin, the proud Black gay man who was chief organizer for the 1963 March on Washington mean for people of color, people who are LGBTQ, allies, and all us today?

Mandy Carter is the National Coordinator of the Bayard Rustin 2013 Commemoration Project of the National Black Justice Coalition.

“Every year, during the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday we hear the iconic ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, which was delivered at the 1963 March on Washington,” says Carter, Bayard Rustin 2013 Commemoration Project National Coordinator. “Yet, most people do not know that Bayard Rustin, an out Black gay man, was the key organizer for that groundbreaking event. America needs to know that Bayard existed. Black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and same-gender-loving people need to know that Rustin stood firm in his identity and, by his very presence, challenged others in the Civil Rights Movement to overcome homophobia.”

Sponsored by the Resource Center for Nonviolence, NAACP Santa Cruz and the Diversity Center