An unsung hero of the civil rights movement

民权运动的无名英雄

来源视频

On August 28th,1963,

Martin Luther King Jr. delivered  his “I Have a Dream” speech

at the March on Washington for  Jobs and Freedom.

That day,

nearly a quarter million people

gathered on the national mall

to demand an end to the discrimination, segregation, violence,

and economic exclusion  black people still faced

across the United States.

None of it would have been possible  without the march’s chief organizer

– a man named Bayard Rustin.

在 1963 年 8 月 28 日举行的

“为工作和自由向华盛顿进军”活动中，

马丁·路德·金发表了 《我有一个梦想》的演讲。

那一天，

将近 25 万人

聚集在国家广场上，

要求停止对全美黑人仍然面临的

种族歧视、隔离、暴力

以及经济排斥。

若没有这场游行的组织者—— 一名叫贝亚德·拉斯汀的人，

这一切都不可能发生。

Rustin grew up in a Quaker household,

and began peacefully protesting racial segregation in high school.

He remained committed to  pacifism throughout his life,

and was jailed in 1944 as a conscientious  objector to World War II.

During his two-year imprisonment,

he protested the segregated  facilities from within.

Wherever Rustin went,

he organized and advocated,

and was constantly attuned to the  methods, groups, and people

who could help further  messages of equality.

拉斯汀在一个贵格会家庭长大，

高中时就开始和平抗议种族隔离。

他一生都致力于和平主义，

1944年，因极力反对二战入狱。

在两年的监禁期间，

他从监狱内部 抗议种族隔离设施。

无论拉斯汀去哪里，

他进行组织和倡导，

并不断适应方法、团体

以及能帮助宣扬平等信息的人。

He joined the Communist Party

when black American’s civil rights  were one of its priorities,

but soon became disillusioned by the  party’s authoritarian（专制的） leanings

and left.

In 1984,

he traveled to India to learn the  peaceful resistance strategies

of the recently assassinated  Mahatma Gandhi.

He returned to the United States

armed with strategies  for peaceful protest,

including civil disobedience.

他加入了共产党，

因为美国黑人的公民权利 是该党优先倡导的事情之一，

（这句就不翻了，总觉得有点膈应）

然后他便离开了。

1984年，他前往印度，

向最近被暗杀的圣雄·甘地

学习和平抵抗策略。

然后他回到美国，

以和平抗议战略武装自己，

包括非暴力反抗。

He began to work with  Martin Luther King Jr in ,

and shared these ideas with him.

As King’s prominence increased,

Rustin became his main advisor,

as well as a key strategist in the  broader civil rights movement.

He brought his organizing expertise

to the  bus boycotts  in Montgomery, Alabama

—in fact,

he had organized and participated  in a transportation protest

that helped inspire the boycotts  almost a decade before.

1955年他开始与马丁·路德·金合作，

并和他分享这些想法。

随着金的地位日益提高，

拉斯汀成为了他的主要顾问，

以及更广泛的民权运动的 关键战略家。

他在 1956 年阿拉巴马州 蒙哥马利巴士抵制活动中，

展现了他的组织能力——

事实上，

他曾组织并参与了 一次交通抗议活动，

这激发了在近十年前的 一系列抵制运动。

His largest-scale organizing project  came in 1963,

when he led the planning for the  national march on Washington.

The possibility of riots that could  injure marchers

and undermine their message of peaceful  protest was a huge concern.

Rustin not only worked with the DC  police and hospitals to prepare,

but organized and trained a volunteer  force of 2,000 security marshals.

他 1963 年组织了最大规模的活动，

领导了华盛顿的全国游行计划。

发生骚乱而伤害游行者

从而破坏他们和平抗议的信息的 可能性是一个巨大的隐患。

拉斯汀不仅与华盛顿警察局 和医院联合做好准备，

还组织并训练了 2000 名 志愿者组成的保安队。

In spite of his deft management,

some of the other organizers did  not want Rustin to march in front

with other leaders from the south,  because of his homosexuality.

Despite these slights,

Rustin maintained his focus, and on the day of the march

he delivered the marchers' demands

in a speech directed at  President John F. Kennedy.

The march itself proceeded smoothly, without any violence.

尽管拉斯汀管理得当，

但因为他是同性恋，

其他一些组织者不希望他 和南方其他领导人共同走在前列。

即使存在这些歧视，

拉斯汀集中精力组织活动，

并于游行当天发表演讲，

向肯尼迪总统提出游行者的要求。

游行本身进行得很顺利， 没有任何暴力。

It has been credited with helping pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act,

which ended segregation in public places  and banned employment discrimination,

and the 1965 Voting Rights Act,

which outlawed discriminatory  voting practices.

In spite of his decades of service,

Rustin’s positions on certain political  issues were unpopular among his peers.

Some thought he wasn’t critical enough  of the Vietnam War,

or that he was too eager to collaborate with the political establishment

including the President and congress.

Others were uncomfortable with his  former communist affiliation.

这场游行被认为有助于 1964 年《民权法》的通过，

该法案结束了公共场所的 种族隔离，并禁止就业歧视，

也有助于1965 年 《投票权法》的通过，

该法案禁止歧视性投票行为。

尽管他服务了几十年，

拉斯汀对某些政治问题的立场 在同龄人当中并不受欢迎。

有人认为他对越南战争的批评不够，

或者说他太急于和政府合作，

包括总统和国会在内。

其他人则对他之前 曾加入共产党感到不安。

But ultimately,

both his belief in collaboration

with the government  and his membership

to the communist party

had been driven by his desire to maximize tangible gains

in liberties for black Americans,

and to do so as quickly as possible.

Rustin was passed over for several  influential roles in the 1960s and 70s,

but he never stopped his activism.

In the 1980s,

he publicly came out as gay, and was instrumental

in drawing attention to the AIDS crisis until his death in 1987.

但说到底，

他与政府合作的理念

以及他曾是共产党的身份，

都是为了最大限度地

改变美国黑人自由的现状，

而且是越快越好。

在 20 世纪 60 和 70 年代，几个 有影响力的职位都未选择拉斯汀，

但他从未停止过激进活动。

在 20 世纪 80 年代，

他公开出柜，并一直 呼吁人们关注艾滋病危机，

直到 1987 年去世。

In 2013,

fifty years after the March On Washington,

President Barack Obama posthumously  awarded him

the Presidential Medal of Freedom,

praising Rustin’s  “march towards true equality,

no matter who we are  or who we love.”

2013 年，

在“华盛顿游行” 50 年后，

奥巴马总统

在他死后授予他总统自由勋章，

赞扬拉斯汀“向真正的平等迈进，

无论我们是谁，无论我们爱的是谁。”