Bayard Rustin’s influential 1967 pamphlet, Fear, Frustration, Backlash: The New Crisis in Civil Rights, outlined the limitations of civil rights legal gains and called for sweeping economic reforms to tackle systemic poverty and racial injustice affecting African American communities.
Black Power and the Perils of Isolation: Rustin’s Case for Coalition Politics
Bayard Rustin’s influential pamphlet “Black Power and Coalition Politics,” distributed by the A. Philip Randolph Institute, critiques the rising nationalist slogan “black power” and argues that sustainable social change requires interracial coalitions with labor, liberals, and religious groups to secure economic and political reforms rather than separatist withdrawal or violent confrontation.
