In Memoriam: Bayard Rustin

Routinely described as the architect of the American Civil Rights Movement, Bayard Rustin is just as routinely denied his legacy today by the offspring of the Baptist ministers who were his lieutenants in this most noble undertaking because Rustin was openly - even unashamedly - gay at a time when he could still be jailed in many jurisdictions for being so...

Born on this day in 1912, Rustin was raised by his maternal grandparents; both were active in their community - Rustin's grandmother was a Quaker, his grandfather belonged to the A.M.E. Church - as a boy he was taken by them to meetings of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Not only would he have heard W.E.B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson speak there, but these legendary civil rights pioneers were also frequent guests in his grandparents' home.

Originally enrolled at Wilberforce University, Rustin's academic career took on a peripatetic quality following his work on behalf of the Scottsboro Nine in 1936; the outrageous bigotry directed at nine black men unfairly imprisoned lit the fuse of the civil rights movement in America - not to mention lighting a fire under one of its most tireless proponents - a fuse which would eventually detonate a generation later in another corner of Alabama during the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

The idea for a march on Washington first occurred during World War II, when the military was still officially segregated; with his typical aplomb President Franklin D. Roosevelt deftly defused that situation before it got out of hand by implementing Executive Order 8802, following which Rustin went to California to advocate on behalf of interned Japanese-Americans. Imprisoned for violating the Selective Service Act, he continued to agitate on behalf on civil rights while incarcerated.

As Rustin's star rose, questions about his sexuality and past affiliation with Communism began troubling the civil rights leadership, notably Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (D-NY), who forced Rustin's resignation from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which Rustin had founded with Martin Luther King, Jr.; undeterred, Rustin went to work on realizing his other dream. At the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 Dr. King made his famous I Have a Dream speech, but the dream had been Rustin's first, a fact too often overlooked today. In response to the March on Washington, President Lyndon Baines Johnson bullied the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the National Voting Rights Act (1965) through both houses of Congress.

Following King's assassination, Rustin eschewed the angry tactics (and blatant homophobia) of the Black Power movement by turning his attention to gay rights, stating: 'The barometer of where one is on human rights questions is no longer the black community, it's the gay community. Because it is the community which is most easily mistreated.' Bayard Rustin died of complications following surgery in August 1987; he was survived by Walter Naegle, his partner of 10 years.

The memoir of record is Jervis Anderson's Bayard Rustin: Troubles I've Seen; the PBS documentary Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin by Nancy Kates and Bennett Singer - a clip of which can be seen here - draws heavily on this work. My thanks to keithboykin.com for this additional information.
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Ed Byrne on Drinking

Irish comedian Ed Byrne sounds off on what is stereotypically (as well as statistically) Ireland's favourite hobby - behind slagging off the English, of course - on this, the drunkard's highest holy day.
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Dara O'Briain Confronts 'The Troubles'

To my mind the only thing the Irish do better than music is comedy, which accounts for the day's second St Patrick's Day video hat trick...

Here, comedian Dara O'Briain discusses the one incident of anti-Irish sentiment he's encountered in England, at (of all places) the Model Railway Museum in York.
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Politics and Religion With Dylan Moran

Dylan Moran is just one of a crop of talented Irish comedians entertaining audiences around the world; a talented stand up, he's also proven himself capable of anchoring a sitcom, as the star of the BBC programme Black Books.

In fact, he's so popular, I've lost track of the number of times I've featured him on the Pop Culture Institute, which is an honour usually reserved for obscure 'Newfoundland royalty of the 1930s'* and the like.

*As Mr Barr is so fond of describing my content...
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Shades of Green

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"The Hands That Built America" by U2

What St. Patrick's Day Irish music video hat trick would be complete without U2? Not this one, I can tell you that right now!

From the 2002 film Gangs of New York - itself loosely based on Herbert Asbury's 1928 book of the same name which was itself only loosely based on actual history - it's the Oscar-nominated The Hands That Built America.
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"Bonny Portmore" by Loreena McKennitt

Since it's St. Patrick's Day (more on that later) I feel compelled by a serious case of Anglo guilt to highlight the cultural accomplishments of the Irish on this fine, green day. Despite centuries of Papist oppression and almost constant drunkenness they've managed to crank out quite a quaint little culture for themselves. (What else can I say? Once an English bastard, always an English bastard.) Plus they kind of saved Western Civilization during the Middle Ages, which was pretty cool of them all things considered...

This song, though, has long been one of my favourites; I first heard it in 1992, when Loreena McKennitt's album The Visit (on which it appears) was released. Bonny Portmore describes the rape of Ireland by the British, who decimated the oaken forests of Ireland so as to build ships with which to set about conquering the world. Which, need I remind you, they very nearly did, or at any rate did better than anyone before them until American capitalism beat them at their own game.

What was I talking about?

Oh yeah... Great song... Have a listen...
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"The Celts" by Enya

I can hear you purists groaning, but I've long been a fan of Enya, and since I think this is the most Irish of her songs that surely qualifies it for placement here; certainly I've posted things on flimsier pretexts before, which to be quite honest I did so as to later justify stuff like this.

Just be grateful I'm not wearing orange.*

A n y w a y... The song you see above, The Celts, is taken from Enya's 1987 self-titled debut album, which was re-released in 1992 as The Celts, remastered and with a couple of the tracks altered.

*Not even I would be that stupid.
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What's The Occasion? St. Patrick's Day

As with many holidays of relatively long-standing, there is considerable lore surrounding St. Patrick's Day; for instance, did you know that the colour associated with St. Patrick is blue? The whole green thing is purely Irish, and what better, as it's said that there are more shades of green in any view of the Irish countryside than the human eye can register. It probably took someone at the Irish Tourist Board ages to come up with that, but it's still a pretty sentiment nonetheless...

My personal favourite annual tradition is the dyeing of the Chicago River green, which makes a pleasant change from grey speckled with chunks of brown; later in the evening even the alleys and gutters of the city run green, so persistent is the presence of food colouring used in beer that it lends its joyous hue to urine and vomit alike.

Of course, St. Patrick himself wasn't Irish at all, but Roman-born, and brought to Ireland as a slave. This is in marked contrast to many Irish, who left Ireland because they felt like slaves of the British, only to face 'No Irish Need Apply' signs in Canada, the United States, and Australia. The Irish diaspora has become so successful - even in the face of that grievous bigotry - that even Glasgow holds a St. Patrick's Day parade; no word yet on what sort of St. Andrew's Day parade Dublin will be having come November, but it's likely to be a darn sight better than the one they hold on St. George's Day.

These parades are commonplace around the world, but the most famous one is in New York City, where annually millions gather to practice their homophobia under the watchful eye of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Here at the Pop Culture Institute, of course, we celebrate things a little differently, as you might have guessed if you've been following our coverage; here March 17th is St. Passive-Aggressive's Day, he being our patron saint. We light a candle to Brigid and I exchange the red paint-ball pellets I normally use to take potshots at the drunken frat-boys in the alley behind my apartment for green ones. A good time is had by all (or, in this case, me).

The image used in this post was taken (by me) from a mural on the side of St. Patrick's Secondary School in Vancouver.
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"Danny Boy" by The Muppets

What better way to kick off St. Patrick's Day than with a touching (in so many ways) performance by three of The Muppet Show's finest singers - including Beaker, Animal, and the Swedish Chef as The Leprechaun Brothers - performing that Irish classic Danny Boy; originally the UK Spot of Episode 520, whenever it's played around the Pop Culture Institute there's nary a dry eye (or, indeed, seat) in the place.
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POPnews - March 17th

[As Attorney-General of New York, Eliot Spitzer led (amongst others) a campaign against high-end prostitution; his promising career as governor - which some said could have taken him all the way to the White House - cooled when, within weeks of his taking office in 2007, his inner douchebag (which had been so useful in his previous job) began to emerge and terrorize the sensitive burghers of Albany. A year later, on this day in 2008, Spitzer was busted for hypocrisy and hounded from office to live out the rest of his days in tabloid ignominy and on a very short leash indeed - one which his wife, alas, would be holding. Not hot...]

45 BCE - In his last victory, at the Battle of Munda - two days short of one year before his murder - Julius Caesar defeated the forces of Titus Labienus (who was killed that day, alongside 3,000 of his men) and Pompey the Younger (who was later captured and executed for treason).

180 CE - Marcus Aurelius died, leaving Commodus the sole emperor - although he wasn't murdered by Commodus as depicted in the Ridley Scott film Gladiator (2000).

1337 - Edward, the Black Prince, was made the first Duke of Cornwall; this was also England's first duchy - although it is not intended to be passed around the left hand side, but rather automatically to the eldest son of the sovereign by birthright.

1776 - At the outset of the American Revolution, following the 11-month long siege of Boston, British forces under General William Howe evacuated several thousand troops and loyalists after George Washington and Henry Knox fortified Dorchester Heights by placing artillery overlooking the city in order to secure what was then the busiest port in the Thirteen Colonies; the day is still commemorated there as Evacuation Day, which ties in quite nicely with the after-effects of drink copious quantities of green beer.

1805 - The Italian Republic, with Napoleon as president, became the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King. Coincidence? No... Not at all.

1845 - The rubber band was first patented, in England, by Stephen Perry.

1861 - The Kingdom of Italy (1861-1946) was proclaimed; its first King was Victor Emmanuel II of the House of Savoy. This is not to be confused with the Kingdom of Italy declared on this day in 1805 - see above - which was a vassal state of France, and did not comprise the entire Italian Peninsula (which even this one would not control until 1870).

1941 - The National Gallery of Art was officially opened by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in Washington, DC.

1950 - Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley announced the creation of element 98, which they named Californium.

1957 - A plane crash in Cebu killed Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others.

1958 - The United States launched Vanguard 1 as part of Project Vanguard; the first solar-powered satellite, it is still aloft (although no longer is use), and is thus the oldest piece of space junk orbiting the Earth.

1959 - One week after an unsuccessful uprising in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, fled Tibet for India, hotly pursued by the Chinese, who have illegally occupied his country since 1950.

1966 - Off the Mediterranean coast of Spain the Alvin submarine found the fourth 70-kiloton warhead accidentally dropped during the Palomares Incident two months earlier, the other three having fallen on land, thankfully without detonating.

1969 - Golda Meir was sworn in as the first woman Prime Minister of Israel.

1979 - The Penmanshiel Tunnel - first opened in 1846 - collapsed during engineering improvements, killing two workers; the tunnel is no longer in use, its collapse having rather effectively, if drastically, closed it.

1985 - Having already raped and murdered Jennie Vincow, serial killer Richard Ramirez - aka the 'Night Stalker' - committed the second and third of his 14 murders, killing Maria Hernandez and Dayle Okazaki in a spree which terrorized Los Angeles prior to his capture on August 24th.

1992 - A suicide car-bomb killed 29 and injured 242 during an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires.

2000 - The Ugandan cult Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God - a breakaway Catholic sect founded by Credonia Mwerinde and Joseph Kibweteere - celebrated what they considered to be the apocalypse by roasting and eating three bulls washed down with 70 crates of soft drinks before killing more than 800 of its members in an explosion.

2008 - New York Governor Eliot Spitzer resigned after a scandal involving a high-end prostitute; he was succeeded by Lieutenant-Governor David Paterson, whose own past was also less than pristine.
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