“If she said one more thing about nonviolent resistance, I was gonna punch her in the face.”— Joseph Weisberg, Joel Fields, Philip Jennings, Matthew Rhys, imdb.com
“Many Negroes see mass violence coming. Having lived in a society in which church, school, and home problems have been handled in a violent way, the majority at this point are unable to conceive of a solution by reconciliation and nonviolence. I have seen schoolboys in Arkansas laying away rusty guns…”— Bayard Rustin, explorepahistory.com
“An increasingly militant group has it in mind to demand now, with violence if necessary, the rights it has long been denied.’ If we must die abroad for democracy we can't have,’ I heard a friend of mine say, 'then we might as well die right here, fighting for our rights.'”— Bayard Rustin, explorepahistory.com
“When we reached Nashville, a number of policemen were lined up on both sides of the hallway down which I had to pass on my way to the captain's office. They tossed me from one to another like a volleyball. By the time I reached the office, the lining of my best coat was torn, and I was considerably…”— Bayard Rustin, explorepahistory.com
“‘I believe that I have a right to sit here,’ I said quietly. ‘If I sit in the back of the bus I am depriving that child—' I pointed to a little white child of five or six—‘of the knowledge that there is injustice here, which I believe it is his right to know. It is my sincere conviction that the pow…”— Bayard Rustin, explorepahistory.com
“Now I tried, secondly, to make it clear that in a sense forcing them into that position did not create violence but rather brought already-existing violence to the surface so that they recognized its existence and were able to deal with it. I pointed out that there are many, many times—and this is a…”— Bayard Rustin, blogcitylights.com