Extended interview with Bayard Rustin conducted by Blackside, Inc. for the Eyes on the Prize documentary precursor, covering his organizational role in Montgomery, Birmingham, the March on Washington, Selma, and the strategic shift from protest to electoral politics.
Recorded at Washington University’s Henry Hampton Collection, Rustin’s 1979 reflections trace how returning World War II veterans ignited early militancy relieved by the 1954 Brown decision, how nonviolent direct action won civil rights legislation, and why Rustin believed mass campus coalitions and voting mobilization must supplant street protest. His candid critique of Kennedy versus Johnson administrations and of intra-movement divisions illustrates the movement’s evolution into the broader economic and political battles of the 1960s and ’70s.
This recording is divided into two parts.
“Interview With Bayard Rustin.” n.d. http://repository.wustl.edu/concern/videos/vm40xt471.
