#black figures

[galleryofart]

Easter Mystery

Artist: Maurice Denis (French, 1870–1943)

Date: 1891

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States

[tilbageidanmark]

"For the greater good"

[sheltiechicago]

“It’s Planted In Your Palm” (2023), woodblock prints on archival paper, Japanese rice paper, acrylic, spray paint, and wood mounted on paper, 33 x 58 inches. Photo by Daniel Greer.

Embraced by Wildflowers, Black Figures Emerge Defiantly Resilient in Yashua Klos’s Collaged Portraits

All images © Yashua Klos

“The Wildflowers Whisper To Him” (2023), woodblock prints on archival paper, Japanese rice paper, muslin, acrylic, spray paint, colored pencil, and wood mounted on canvas, 74 x 64 inches. Photo by Sveva Costa Sanseverino

“Our Champ” (2023), woodblock prints on archival paper, Japanese rice paper, acrylic, spray paint, colored pencil, and wood on canvas, 48 x 48 inches. Photo by Sveva Costa Sanseverino

“They Say She Your Auntie Too” (2022), woodblock prints on archival paper, Japanese rice paper, muslin, acrylic, spray paint, colored pencil, and wood mounted on canvas, 72 x 60 inches. Courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

“Hold Your Wildflowers (Count Your Blessings)” (2023), woodblock print on Japanese rice paper, 55 x 43 inches. Photo by Daniel Greer

[la-muse-noire]

Ellis Wilson, Peasants Resting, 1945

[mariondanslorage]

[parapraxia-minora]

10/11/2020

[virtualartcurator]

artist - Gu Puen

// virtual art curator

[starrynight0612]

Bayard Rustin: The Forgotten Gay Civil Rights Activist

Keeping in theme with blackout Tuesday as a way to educate one another I’d like to share information about a prominent Black Civil Rights Activist. Also, keeping in theme with Pride month, he happened to be gay, which of course, is the reason many of us hear so little about him. 

Bayard Rustin is best known for his work with Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1950′s and 60′s. He was one of the key figures in organizing the March on Washington; he drilled off-duty cops as marshalls, bus captains to direct traffic, and scheduled the podium speakers. 

In 1953 he was arrested for sexual activity with a man in a parked car and pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of “sex perversion” (standard sentence for sodomy at the time). He served 60 days in prison. While up to that point he’d always been openly gay with family and friends his prison sentence made it widespread knowledge. This was all prior to meeting MLK but MLK was clearly aware of Rustin’s sexual orientation and still chose to keep him in his inner circle. It’s believed that Rustin was actually the one who converted MLK to adopting pacifism as Rustin had been a prominent advocate of it, combining Quaker ideology with socialism, forming the foundation of his belief system. 

His sexual orientation was used against him to discredit the Civil Rights movement. A U.S. Representative threatened to leak rumors of an affair between King and Rustin forcing the men to stop organizing a march at the Democratic National Convention. A few weeks before the March on Washington, Senator Strom Thurmond declared Rustin a “Communist, draft-dodger and homosexual” and went as far as entering a photo of Rustin speaking to MLK while he sat in the bathtub as evidence of an affair. MLK wanted Rustin to have a stronger presence at the forefront but others intervened saying they couldn’t have someone who was such a liability be a front person and was relegated to be more behind the scenes. Despite outside interventions the March was a success. 

I could go on an on about his work in civil rights. Talk about how he organized the New York City school Boycott. His travels to India to learn from prominent leaders of the Ghandian movement. His five day-series of writings about the awful 22 days he served in a chain-gang after being arrested for violating Jim Crow segregation laws. I’ll leave that to the rest of you to look up. 

Bayard Rustin met George Neagle(still alive) in 1977 and became life partners until Bayard’s death in 1987. To get around same-sex marriage laws Bayard adopted Neagle in 1982 (a common way back then to ensure their partners had legal rights over them). Neagle’s mother had to fill out a form disowning him and a social worker had to visit their home to deem it “fit.” Neagle accepted the Medal of Freedom on behalf of Rustin in 2013 from Barack Obama for his work in Civil Rights. 

Later in his life, Bayard would express his sentiments over not being more involved in gay rights activism. He felt his sexual orientation was a private matter but at the urging of his partner he participated in a few protests. He had this to say at a speech about a gay right’s bill in New York (warning:use of “N****):

“Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new "niggers" are gays.... It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change.... The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people.” 

He became a controversial figure as he felt Black people should focus more on improving themselves rather than changing the system to work for them after the laws were put in place giving them rights. Still, no matter what, no one can dispute the impact of Bayard Rustin on the Civili Rights Movement. Without him we may not have had the MLK we all know and several organizations may not be as successful as they were without him. 

Remember Bayard Rustin.