Bayard Rustin (1912-1987), A Rare Autograph Letter Signed from the Civil Rights Activist

One page air letter written in blue ink on a single sheet folded twice, sent via Air Mail to the Medina Art Gallery in New York City from Bayard Rustin, addressed from Dar Es Salaam, Tanganyika (in today's Tanzania), and dated Sunday, February 17, 1963; Rustin starts the letter addressing the hot weather in the city, and then explains that "My work here will be over / within a week. Then on to London for a / few day[s] and back home, I trust, by / March 1st. / It is really amazing how / much energy recently independent / people have. This city is greatly / modified since my visit last year / and the percentage of children is [sic] schools has risen over 200%. / But alas the most lovely / african [sic] works of art are not here but / in New York. The Vice President asked / me the other day if I would buy / things there (New York) that originally / came from here for their tiny / museum...."; signed "With affection, Bayard Rustin."

8 x 9 1/2 in. unfolded

Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) was an activist who spent his life fighting for racial equality and human rights worldwide. He was an advisor to Martin Luther King Jr., and worked alongside him and others to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957. Rustin was an advocate of nonviolence, and he led and organized numerous peaceful protests and demonstrations, including the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom for which he served as the principal organizer and director. Due to discrimination he faced, Rustin stayed out of the spotlight, and therefore he never became well-known for his role in the Civil Rights Movement. Rustin was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013. His story was the focus of the 2023 movie Rustin, an award-winning film produced by Higher Ground, a production company founded by Barack and Michelle Obama.

This letter focuses on Rustin's role as a member of the World Peace Brigade (WPB) working to promote nonviolence in Africa in the early 1960s. A somewhat similar letter, dated the same day but addressed to A. Philip Randolph and others can be found in I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin's Life in Letters, edited by Michael G. Long (City Lights, 2012). In his commentary on the letter, Long notes that "Although he was pleased with decolonization in Africa, Rustin sensed that non-violence would not endure for much longer...With this in mind, Rustin closed the WPB nonviolent training center before he returned to the United States at the beginning of March." (p. 258)

Expected light wear from handling and mailing (mostly creasing); small chips and areas of separation at central fold.