[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 136 (Tuesday, August 15, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E777]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              INTRODUCTION OF THE BAYARD RUSTIN STAMP ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, August 15, 2023

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today, I introduce the Bayard Rustin Stamp 
Act. This bill would direct the United States Postmaster General to 
issue a forever stamp to commemorate the life and work of Bayard 
Rustin. I introduce this bill with Congressman Ritchie Torres. We 
introduce this bill now to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the 
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, which occurred on August 28, 
1963, and the anniversary of Rustin's death, which occurred on August 
24, 1987.
  Born March 17, 1912, Bayard Rustin became one of the most important 
leaders in the 20th century civil rights movement. At a young age, 
Rustin learned the values of nonviolence and peacekeeping from his 
grandparents' Quaker faith, and he would continue to build these values 
into his life as a civil rights movement leader.
  Rustin attended City College of New York, where he joined a 
progressive club that aimed to remedy racial issues during turbulent 
times. His time with the club was short-lived, but it inspired him to 
join the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an organization that became a 
champion for labor rights, equity and world peace.
  Rustin's time with the Fellowship of Reconciliation led him to become 
a leader in the 1947 ``Journey to Reconciliation,'' where white and 
Black people across the South rode buses together to challenge 
segregation laws, a precursor to the Freedom Rides.
  Rustin was an advisor in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s inner circle as 
King advocated pacifism and nonviolence for achieving equal treatment 
for African Americans. Rustin applied his brilliant strategic mind to 
execute aggressive, peaceful action in the civil rights movement and 
throughout his life as an activist.
  His most important role was as the chief organizer of the historic 
March on Washington, the largest demonstration ever organized at the 
time, in which a quarter of a million people turned out to demand civil 
rights for African Americans.
  In the years after the civil rights movement, Rustin, a gay man, 
inspired others to advocate for and to achieve rights for LGBTQ people. 
He remained a strategist and public speaker for workers' rights 
movements, including co-founding the A. Philip Randolph Institute, an 
organization for Black trade union members. Rustin remained committed 
to promoting social good, and advocating for the disenfranchised, until 
his death.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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