I’ve got a photograph of Bayard Rustin, mid-energetic gesture, hanging on my office wall. Rustin was the consummate organizer, and over a storied career he worked for civil rights, gay rights, and peace, among many causes. He helped organize the Freedom Rides, counseled Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on nonviolent resistance (having studied directly with the Gandhian movement in India), and organized the largest educational boycott in American history for the integration of the New York City public school system.
Yet the shortest way to summarize the enormity of his legacy has always been, “He organized the 1963 March on Washington.” That will remain the case now that Netflix has released Rustin, which might be the best movie about organizing that I’ve ever seen, and absolutely lived up to my own personal hype for it, given what a Rustin fan I am.
The movie mainly focuses on the build-up to the historic march, which succeeds in the face of massive odds, and the unique life of its primary organizer - the Black, gay, Quaker, former communist who has some of the country’s most powerful forces trying to take him down as he frantically attempts to take the civil rights movement to new heights and shape history.
There is always so much to learn from Rustin. The film’s frenetic pace (appropriately capturing the manic energy of pulling off the biggest protest in American history in eight weeks) makes it easy to overlook his brilliance as the plot steamrolls along.
Here at The Gameplan, my goal is to convey the most effective ways to advocate for change. So, with only minimal spoilers ahead, here are the four key takeaways for advocates from Rustin:
Working in coalition can be a pain, but it’s worth it if groups are bringing serious weight to the table. Early in the film, Roy Wilkins of the NAACP (played delightfully by Chris Rock) is something of an antagonist, openly hostile to “mass organizing” and civil disobedience, considering the protest a distraction at minimum, and potentially dangerous to the movement. If anything, the movie actually undersells the tension between the young radicals at SNCC (including John Lewis) and Dr. King (who they derisively refer to as “the Lawd”). The decision to endorse the March on Washington by the country’s major civil rights orgs came at a cost: a shift in scope and tactics that demoralized Rustin’s young organizers, but ultimately made the event stronger and more focused.
More importantly, compromising with the coalition got their full buy-in (as evidenced by Wilkins’ evolution by the end of the film) plus additional allies like faith leaders and the United Auto Workers, who were essential in raising the political potency of the march. Rustin never loses sight of the goal, which is to put together the biggest civil rights event the country has ever seen, and that means all hands on deck - even (select) NYPD officers!
Politicians don’t like protests, but they respond to good ones. Not only did certain coalition members not love the idea for the March on Washington - politicians right on up to Attorney General Robert Kennedy tried to stop it. Having worked with politicians across the country, they share a common dislike of protest. If it were up to them, activists would make no noise at all. (Two exceptions to this: Out-of-power politicians looking for a hook to get into power, and pols chasing television cameras.) There are always going to be politicians who suggest that protests are hurting the cause, and advocates who believe them. The truth is that a bad protest can hurt the cause: ugly media coverage, tactless messaging, a key politician feeling personally insulted, the list of landmines go on. But I’ve also found that a well-run protest is far more likely to help than hurt. There is no substitute for the energy and momentum (and press) an exciting march or rally can generate, and politicians feel that. As the movie’s final scene points out (and as is well-known to casual readers of history), far from hurting the civil rights movement, gave it the momentum needed to keep pressure on the Kennedy administration, until LBJ could get it across the finish line.
A good organizer invests in the leadership of others. I’ve been banging this drum across extensively on The Gameplan. Even though the camera spotlight rarely leaves Rustin, the movie makes abundantly clear the massive coordination necessary to pull off an event of this scale. Time and again, Rustin doles out challenging assignments to young organizers with the hopes that they will step up and own them, and in doing so, gets them as invested in the outcome as he is.
Details matter! In a late scene that is almost swallowed by the surrounding cacophony, Rustin berates a young organizer for suggesting cheese sandwiches instead of peanut butter and jelly. (Cheese spoils in the hot sun, he laments. “Details matter!”) When I’m working with talented organizers, it doesn’t take long before I trust them on things like political strategy, messaging, and public speaking. But who is assigned to take photos? Who is going to check in the rally speakers as they arrive?
The question of whether there would be enough porta-potties was a recurring pain point during the civil rights movement, including the March on Washington. I can relate. When I was planning a massive march to Rikers Island, we had ordered porta-potties, but they didn’t arrive that morning, and the company was unreachable. We had to send someone to race ahead of the march and ask a nearby bowling alley, the only sizeable commercial property in the area, whether people could relieve themselves there.
A top notch organizer must dream from 30,000 feet and execute on the ground. There is no detail too small, and too many details for one person to possibly remember, or even track in a spreadsheet. That’s why building a culture of attention to detail is essential to successful advocacy.
Tactics must evolve with time. What made the March on Washington so special? It was the optics of thousands of people coming together from across the country, gathering at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, with rousing speeches and music calling for Lincoln’s promise of emancipation to be fully redeemed. Not only was it beautiful, it had never been done before. Sixty years later, there is less magic in moments like that, as I can personally attest to from attending a punchless rally on the Mall in 2010.
Occupy Wall Street ignited a new type of energy when activists reclaimed public space for protest, and Black Lives Matter broke with the banality of permitted march routes. Bayard Rustin was a mad artist, inspiration moved through him. If he were organizing today, he’d be scheming up some special way to bring people together to galvanize them as they never had been before. And for all the horrendous faults of pre-civil rights America, Rustin still trusted the democratic process, arguing for it elegantly in this debate with Malcolm X. Rustin was also totally committed to winning change using non-violence - pursuing a peaceful world meant living those values too.
Great lessons aside, the movie is also just a joy to watch. I’m no film critic, but just give Colman Domingo, who plays Rustin, the Oscar now. The whole cast is great, and Rustin pulls off the seemingly impossible task of making MLK a critical, but not overwhelming character. There’s also a significant plotline around Rustin’s homosexuality and the accompanying scandals it wrought, and if this were a series instead of a movie it likely would have delved further into the complications of his pacifism (he was jailed as a conscientious objector for refusing to fight in World War 2) and his left-wing sympathies (while he had renounced communism in the 1940s, he was once a card-carrying member). Rustin’s questionable decision-making around his personal life makes him painfully relatable, but as the movie’s final scene reminds us, he’s at his core someone who never lost sight of his moral compass.
This film is produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, the former famously our first organizer-turned-president, albeit one who disbanded the massive grassroots Obama for America operation upon assuming office in 2009. All these years later, he did right by elevating the story of one of this country’s great organizers, at a time when we need energy like Rustin’s more than ever.
Thanks for this. I had tickets to see "Rustin" at the Y last weekend but had a conflict. This reminded me that I still want to see it. I love all the lessons. I see that you did not include the January 2017 Women's March. I feel like it may not have had an immediate impact but so many of the women I know from the last five years of activism were at that March and it inspired them to get involved in some way -- either running for office or joining or founding activist groups. It also got people activated for the marches and rallies and actions to oppose the Muslim ban.