Summary of presentation by William Hewitt, Professor of History,
West Chester University Professor Hewitt gave a short lecture on
the life and influences of Bayard Rustin (1912-1987). Born in
West Chester, Pennsylvania, to an unwed mother, Rustin was one
of eight children. He was subsequently raised by his maternal
grandparents, Julia and Janifer Rustin, and even though they
attended Janifer’s African Methodist Episcopal Church, Julia had
been raised a member of the Society of Friends and raised her
charges in a Quaker household with a strong belief in God and
principles of non-violence. Rustin grew up in a segregated, Jim
Crow neighborhood in West Chester but attended a desegregated
high school as one of only a few black students. He was
successful in the chorus, debate, and athletics; a biographer,
John D’Emilio in Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard
Rustin, described him as a “Renaissance man, excelling in
everything.” In athletics, Rustin started with tennis,
ultimately abandoning it as a “pansy sp