The Alternative Press

 Free and open to the public, the film Brother Outsider will be shown on Saturday evening, February 2, at Chatham-Summit Quaker Meeting in Chatham, NJ. This award-winning documentary presents the life and work of Bayard Rustin, the influential African-American Quaker who orchestrated the historic March on Washington in 1963. The year 2013 marks the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington and the 150^th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The evening begins with a light supper at 5:30 p.m. The film shows at 6:15 p.m., followed by dessert and discussion at 8:00 p.m. Discussion will explore Bayard Rustin’s place in history and his continuing relevance to civil and human rights today. Participating in the discussion panel will be Drew University professor Lillie J. Edwards, Ph.D., Professor of History and African-American Studies; and Walter Naegle, Rustin’s partner of ten years and executor and archivist of the Bayard Rustin estate. All visitors are welcome, and teens and college students are especially encouraged to attend.

Bayard Rustin is credited with persuading Martin Luther King and his advisors to make Gandhian nonviolence an essential part of the civil rights movement. Despite his eloquence and strategic brilliance, however, Rustin was denied public leadership roles, largely because he lived openly as a gay man during an extremely homophobic time. The historian John D’Emelio has called Rustin the “lost prophet” of the civil rights movement.

Brother Outsider, filmed by Bennett Singer and Nancy Kates, is included on Bill Moyers’ recent list of Ten Documentaries on Champions of Social Justice. See http://billmoyers.com/content/10-documentaries-on-champions-of-social-justice/ .

The screening of Brother Outsider during Black History Month is part of an ongoing effort by members of Chatham-Summit Meeting to examine the history and implications of racism and bias in American society and in their own lives.  New Jersey Quaker John Woolman (1720-1772) devoted many years to traveling among early Quaker settlers, quietly persuading them to free their slaves and refuse to support the slave trade.

Chatham-Summit Quaker Meeting is one of five Quaker meetings in northern New Jersey. Also called the Religious Society of Friends, Quakers describe themselves as practicing "a simple faith, a radical witness."  See www.nyym.org for more information.

 FOR DIRECTIONS TO THE MEETINGHOUSE:

www.chathamquakers.org or 973-635-2161

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