[R-G] Before I go to bed and forget (re January 20)

[DavidMcR at aol.com]

I know that if your email is like mine, you often don't read things until it 
is too late.

On January 20th, Monday, at 10 p.m. (check local listings) there will be a 90 
minute P.O.V. special called "Brother Outsider", the life of Bayard Rustin. 
This is a PBS Premiere.

Bayard was my boss for some years when he worked at War Resisters League, I 
knew him very well also from my years at Liberation magazine (he was one of 
the editors), and was one of the two primary "mentors" for my own politics 
(the other being A.J. Muste). Bayard's homosexuality is in many ways central 
to this film and so it will be of special interest to those in the 
gay/lesbian community. The fact he was black will make it of interest to the 
community of color. He was an absolutely key aide to Dr. Martin Luther King 
Jr. and a key figure in the American pacifist movement.

Those interviewed during the program range from a neo-conservative (Midge 
Dichter) to myself, and a number of others - Bayard's life covered a wide 
range of people.

No film is complete, and this film can't cover in an hour and a half Bayard's 
"drift" from a leading democratic radical to a neo-conservative. Much is left 
out - his time at WRL, and FOR. However I think the film did an excellent job 
at covering perhaps the most unique person I have ever known.

I have seen the film (I was given a copy of it, so friends who can't catch 
the Monday showing can talk to me).  It is very well done. It has an 
impossible task of trying to sum up the life of Bayard, and came close to 
doing it.

David McReynolds