Description
In this expansive oral history interview, veteran organizer Mandy Carter reflects on a fifty-year career in social justice, tracing her tactical and moral lineage directly to the framework established by Bayard Rustin. Carter recounts first hearing Rustin’s name at age 17 during an American Friends Service Committee work camp, an experience she describes as a "game-changer" that shifted her professional aspirations from medicine to full-time activism. She identifies a profound personal connection to Rustin through their shared history as children raised in the Quaker tradition, a background she credits for her own unyielding commitment to nonviolent direct action. You can watch the full interview here on the OUTWORDS archive site.
Carter provides a visceral account of the 1947 Journey of Reconciliation, noting that Rustin’s imprisonment on a North Carolina chain gang serves as a foundational narrative for activists across the South. She highlights the specific "intergenerational" nature of Rustin’s work, recalling how his mentorship of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was frequently stymied by the "politics of respectability". Carter emphasizes that Rustin’s eventual refusal to apologize for his identity—famously declaring that one must "own your own gayness"—was a necessary prerequisite for the modern movement’s insistence on intersectional justice.
The interview bridges Rustin’s mid-century logistics with Carter’s contemporary leadership in organizations like Southerners on New Ground (SONG) and the National Black Justice Coalition. Carter frames Rustin not as a historical footnote but as a "litmus paper" for social change, arguing that his ability to coordinate the 1963 March on Washington while navigating internal homophobia proved that Black queer identity is foundational to American democracy. She concludes by linking Rustin’s legacy to the 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom, noting that the public recognition of his partner, Walter Naegle, represented a monumental shift in national memory.
Historical Context
This 2021 interview occurred in the aftermath of the 2020 Black Lives Matter uprisings, a period Carter describes as a "profound democratic renewal". Carter draws a direct line from Rustin’s 1960s "protest to politics" transition to the modern struggle for voting rights, noting the strategic irony that the Supreme Court's gutting of the Voting Rights Act occurred the same day as the landmark Edith Windsor decision. She argues that the "siloing" of civil rights into separate racial and sexual agendas is a strategic error that Rustin’s coalition-building was specifically designed to prevent.
Carter’s narrative also contextualizes the challenges of LGBTQ+ inclusion within the Black Church, comparing the resistance Rustin faced in the 1950s to modern inclusion efforts. By invoking the early support of Julian Bond—a prominent civil rights leader and former NAACP chairman who advocated for LGBTQ+ equality—for the National Black Justice Coalition, she illustrates the slow fulfillment of Rustin's vision for an "interracial majority". Ultimately, the interview serves as a witness to the "long game" of justice, asserting that the same "inner light" that guided Rustin through a North Carolina jail in 1947 continues to power contemporary advocacy.
`Carter, Mandy. "Interview with Mason Funk." OUTWORDS Archive, March 31, 2021. https://theoutwordsarchive.org/interview/mandy-carter-2/
