Rustin announced the Eldridge Cleaver Defense Fund by emphasizing that, despite their past political opposition, he was defending Cleaver’s right to a fair trial, not his past actions. He highlighted Cleaver’s political maturation, the abandonment and distortion by former allies and the media, and argued that Cleaver’s hard-won critique of totalitarianism made him a uniquely credible voice on the value of democratic reform.
Bayard Rustin's "On Blacks and Jews": Defending Coalition Against Antisemitism
Bayard Rustin warned bluntly that rising antisemitism in Black communities was both morally wrong and politically self-destructive, threatening to collapse the very coalitions that had advanced civil rights. He urged Black leaders to confront the issue directly, reminding readers of the long history of Jewish legal, political, and abolitionist support for Black freedom.
