In this election-year essay, Bayard Rustin calls for a powerful coalition between labor, liberals, and the civil rights movement to defeat a reactionary alliance blocking racial and economic justice. He warns that without a serious, unified political strategy—anchored in programs like A. Philip Randolph’s Freedom Budget—the nation risks repeating the betrayal of Reconstruction and abandoning the promise of democracy.
1967 Pamphlet Outlining Rustin’s Freedom Budget for Economic and Racial Justice
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.
Bayard Rustin's Vision for Economic Justice: "Firebombs or a Freedom Budget"
In 1967, Rustin called for a sweeping Freedom Budget to confront the economic roots of racial injustice, arguing that the civil rights movement had shifted from winning rights to demanding resources. Only large-scale federal investment, he insisted, could meet the needs of the poorest and restore hope to Black communities.
