A Title Willingly Surrendered

In the summer of 1963, Bayard Rustin faced an impossible task: organize the largest demonstration in American history in just eight weeks. Working from a small headquarters at 170 West 130th Street in Harlem, Rustin coordinated every detail for what would become the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28. He arranged over two thousand buses, chartered trains, organized four thousand volunteer marshals, and planned food, water, and medical stations for a quarter of a million people descending on the National Mall.

Yet Rustin accepted the title of Deputy Director, not Director. He insisted that A. Philip Randolph, the elder statesman of the civil rights movement, hold the top position. Rustin knew that his own controversial past — including a prior arrest and former Communist Party ties — would give opponents ammunition to discredit the march. When Senator Strom Thurmond attacked Rustin by name on the Senate floor, Rustin stayed silent so the cause would not suffer. He built the entire scaffolding of that historic day, then stepped behind it.

Paul wrote to the Philippians, "In humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." Rustin embodied this. He measured success not by who received credit, but by whether justice advanced. Believers are called to the same surrender — to ask not "Will I be seen?" but "Will the work of God's Kingdom move forward?" Sometimes the most faithful act is building the stage for someone else to stand on.