 Well, hello from the National Archives, public programs and education staff. My name is Missy McNat, and I am located in the Washington, D.C. office. And welcome to our Young Learner's Children's Book Program. This morning we meet Carol Boston Weatherford, author, poet, and professor. Miss Weatherford has been hailed by the Huffington Post as a master of picture book nonfiction. And she is a Newbury Honor author, a New York Times bestseller, and two-time NAACP Image Award winner. And since her 1995 debut, she has published more than 60 books, including these Caldecott Honor winners, Freedom in Congo Square, Voice of Freedom, Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement, and Moses, when Harriet Tubman led her people to freedom. And six of her books have won the Coretta Scott King Awards or honors. And today, Miss Weatherford discusses her new picture book biography of Bayard Rustin. Bayard Rustin worked behind the scenes for the Civil Rights Movement, including organizing the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August of 1963, where a quarter of a million activists and demonstrators from every corner of the United States convened in the nation's capital. And it was there that they raised their voices in unison to call for racial and economic justice for all Black Americans. The National Archives holds numerous records related to the Civil Rights Movement, including a number related directly to Bayard Rustin. So on this slide, in this photo, we see Bayard Rustin sitting next to President Lyndon B. Johnson. And it's a meeting with civil rights leaders and others in the cabinet room. And very, very sadly, it occurred shortly after the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. And next, we see a close-up of Mr. Rustin, also taken on that same day, April 5 of 1968, in that same meeting. So you can find our educational activities about Bayard Rustin on our DocsTeach website, docsteach.org. And so here's one of them. We have several activities on the website related to his work. In this activity, we have the final plan for the March on Washington in August of 1963. And if you look very closely at the bottom corner of the plan, you can see a circle around Mr. Rustin's name listing him as Deputy Director of the March. So somebody who is absolutely essential to the March, but very much in the background and not as well known as others. And another activity, you can see the final program of the famous March on Washington. And all of these activities can be found on our DocsTeach website, docsteach.org. So when you go to DocsTeach, you can do a search and you can search for Bayard Rustin or the March on Washington to find these activities. So we will take audience questions at the end of our program. So if you have a question for Ms. Weatherford, please enter it in the YouTube chat box. And we have a National Archives staff member who is monitoring the chat box for us today. So all of our programs are brought to you from the National Archives Public Programs and Education Team and the National Archives Foundation. Now please join me in giving a very, very, very warm welcome to author, poet, and professor Carol Boston Weatherford. Good morning, everyone. I'm really happy to be participating in this program and to be focusing on the book, A Song for the Unsung, Bayard Rustin, The Man Behind the 1963 March on Washington. I'm doubly excited because I have done so much research over the years at the National Archives. I mean, dating back to the days when you had to go to Washington and wear white gloves and look through photographs. So my research predates digitization. But I just really appreciate the National Archives so much and appreciate being able to present to you today. The first slide that I'm going to share with you focuses on my childhood. I am a child of the 1960s. I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, which largely had in some ways had desegregated by the time I had reached at least the age of awareness. The first slide shows two amusement parks. That's me in the upper left-hand corner at about age 10 years old. The two amusement parks that you see on the left are Enchanted Forest at the top, which is where my mother took me. It was a storybook theme park, nothing like the theme parks of today. It's now a farm where kids can go and pick stuff and pick produce and see the old storybook sculptures. But the amusement park at the bottom, New Guineau Park, was an amusement park that I didn't get to until I was older because it was segregated. Integrated in 1960, but I think my parents were still upset that it had been segregated, so I didn't get there until about 1966 or 68. So my parents were still holding the grudge about segregation for many years after. I can remember news events from the 1960s. The March on Washington is really one of the, is really the first news event that I can remember being televised other than the launching of rockets during the space race that was going on at the time. So I can remember the March on Washington. I did not attend, but I did watch it all day with my mom. And I can also remember the assassination of President Kennedy. I can remember being out of school during that time period. And I can remember the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King and of course, being out of school for that as well as Baltimore and other cities erupted into riots. On the next slide, I focus on two poems that influenced me as a girl and raised my consciousness. The first poem that touched me and raised my consciousness about not only the civil rights movement, but about conditions that African Americans had faced not just in the 60s, but many years prior in the United States. It's nice to use this poem I too. In fourth grade, we had to memorize that poem. And then in eighth grade, during a study of the Harlem Renaissance, I was exposed to another poem of home by County Cullen entitled Incident. And it is about a boy who visited my hometown of Baltimore and met a white boy about the same age and the white boy called him the n-word. And of all the things that happened to him during his trip to Baltimore, that's all that the little black boy could remember. And so those poems really resonated, both of those poems really resonated with me and raised my consciousness as I was coming of age. Another thing that you need to know about me is that I was raised by two grandmothers. I had my parents were in the household, but there was always a grandmother in the house. And the next slide shows those two grandmothers. My grandmother on the left, I called Mama Boston. And on the right was Mama Annie. And in the center, you see me with my parents and my grandfather, Reverend Lund P. Whitten. He was a Methodist minister. So being exposed to my grandmothers and having inherited the legacy of my grandfather, I appreciated oral traditions, storytelling traditions, folklore, sayings, from proverbs to old wives' tales. My grandmothers' new recipes by heart, they quilted, which for me is both a fiber art, but also oral traditions kind of get passed down through quilts because they tell stories. And if you look at the quilts and see the clothes and you can remember the clothes that those fabric, pieces of fabric came from, that the quilts tell a story, whether they are intentionally story quilts or not. So I had a group in a very language-rich environment where culture and customs were passed down from generation to generation. And that has influenced my mission as an author, which you will see on the next slide. My mission as an author is to mine the past for family stories, fading traditions, and forgotten struggles that center black resistance, resilience, remarkability, rejoicing, and remembrance. And so what that means is that I translate that in many different ways. And you'll see on the next slide how that mission manifests itself in my work. I write hybrid genre work. I mix poetry with biography, nonfiction and historical fiction. My work is known for inventive and evocative lyrics that reveal hidden history. As I said, I'm inspired by oral traditions. I mentioned recipes and proverbs, but also I'm influenced by spirituals in the blues, protest songs, sermons, and the way people talk, the vernacular. I integrate primary sources and I also sample, not spong lyrics as it says there, but song lyrics into my work whenever I can. Some recurring themes that I'm known for are besides segregation and civil rights and social justice movements, are music, sports, and photography. My books and poems invite study across the curriculum, and I'm pretty prolific. If you blink, you might miss one of my titles, and I personally have lost count of how many books I have, but it's more than 60. And the next slide shows some of my books. I am known for writing biographies. I've written biographies of several famous people. Harriet Tubman was one of my early heroes. I've written about Oprah Winfrey, at least the first six years of her life in the partial biography, Oprah the Little Speaker. I've written about President Obama, about Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, and about Martin Luther King, just to name a few of the more famous figures that I have written about. However, the next slide shows that I also write about hidden figures, unsung heroes, forgotten heroes. And that's really an important part of my mission to spotlight people who are in danger of fading into obscurity. People like Arturo Schaumburg, the man behind the Schaumburg Center in New York, the largest repository of African-American research and culture in the United States. People like Matthew Henson, who was one of the first to reach the geographic North Pole, like Fannie Lou Hamer, the voting rights activist from Mississippi. People like Wendell Scott, who was the first and only African-American to win a stock car racing, a stock car race. He was the first and only African-American stock car racing champion. And people like Mary Hamilton, one of many women who worked behind the scenes of the civil rights movement. Women who are just beginning to get their due. Call me Ms. Hamilton is one of the books that I collaborated on with my son, Jeffrey Weatherford. Which brings me to another recurring theme in my book, besides social justice movements and besides profiling famous and forgotten heroes. The next slide shows some of my books that are about music. I really love music, particularly jazz, and I have written many books about musicians and about songs and about musical genres like rap and jazz. So it was natural for me, it was a no-brainer for me when Rob Sanders came to me. Rob Sanders is the co-author of A Song for the Unsung. When Rob Sanders came to me and asked if I was interested in co-authoring a book, collaborating on a book about Bayard Rustin, I said, yes. It was an opportunity for me to merge not only my love for music, but also my interest in the freedom struggle into one book. So I'm going to read a few pages from A Song for the Unsung and we'll advance to the next slide and you can read along with me. That is the cover, the book is illustrated by Brian McCray who is a new talent. I think this is his debut book and I'm really excited for him and I just love the artwork that he created for the book. So if you go to the next slide, please, I will read some excerpts from the book. And you'll notice that the display type on these spreads are song titles. So that is how we integrated Bayard Rustin's love for music into the text. Sing, Pray On, to Call on the Hopes of the Ancestors. Born in Westchester, Pennsylvania in 1912, Bayard had the faith of his grandmother Julia Davis Rustin. She taught Young Bayard her Quaker values. Early on, he learned the church's teachings including a belief in nonviolence. Bayard was also learning about the injustices that African Americans faced. Julia supported the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NAACP. Young Bayard gave up his bed when well-known NAACP members stayed overnight in the Rustin home. He heard the grown-ups talking late into the night about the civil rights struggle. Sing, Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen under the burden of racism. We'll go on to the next spread. As a young man, Bayard's feelings about justice, peace, and nonviolence grew stronger and stronger. And he put his feelings about equality and pacifism into action. Sing, Every Time I Feel the Spirit to Keep the Faith. When he refused to give up his seat on a bus, Bayard was beaten and arrested. He did not fight back. Sing, Traveling Shoes to Take a Stand by Sitting Down. When he refused to fight in World War II or to support the war, Bayard was sent to prison for more than two years. Behind bars, he spoke up for equality, working to integrate the prison so black and white prisoners were treated equally. Sing, Down by the Riverside to Advocate for Peace. Sing, The Gospel Train Along the First Ever Freedom Ride. Once out of prison, Bayard joined another protest against segregated buses. Again, he was arrested. This time, he was sentenced to a chain gang. But the harsh treatment did not change Bayard's commitment to civil rights and his dedication to peaceful protest. Next spread, please. Sing, I'm gonna sit at the welcome table to demand service. And I love that, I love that songs. I actually am gonna sing a few bars of that. That's also a song that Fannie Lou Hamer, another one of my biographical subjects sang. I'm gonna sit at the welcome table. I'm gonna sit at the welcome table. One of these days, hallelujah. I'm gonna sit at the welcome table. Gonna sit at the welcome table. One of these days, one of these days. When Bayard staged a one man sit-in at a white's only lunch counter, he was again arrested. But jail time didn't stop him from fighting for what he knew was right. As a young black gay man, Bayard Rustin was also learning about another kind of inequality and injustice. Back then, men who loved men and women who loved women could not socialize together. Doing so could get you arrested. Bayard knew that firsthand and revealing that you were gay could mean losing your job, your friends, or even your family. Bayard's family stood by him, but being gay threatened his civil rights mission. Some of African-American leaders didn't want to work with him. Some white lawmakers tried to shame him. Still Bayard kept on fighting for equality. And he did so while being nonviolent. Sing, I've been butte when society frowns on you. I've been butte and I've been scorned. Oh, I've been butte and I've been scorned. I've been butte and I've been scorned. I'm gonna talk about it sure as you're born. I think I got some of the words wrong. So next slide. The next slide shows marchers with their feet in the water in the reflecting pool. And that's one of the things that I can remember seeing as the March on Washington was televised. Bayard was not used to being in the spotlight. Bayard was used to not being in the spotlight. His name had been left off important reports he had co-authored. He had been a trusted advisor to Dr. King and then had been let go. Some would have nothing to do with Bayard. After all, they must have thought, what does a gay man have to offer us for our cause? But when a Philip Randolph was put in charge of the March on Washington, he knew immediately the man he wanted as his deputy, Bayard Rustin. Seeing this little light of mine from behind the scenes. Bayard did not have time to think about any of that as the crowd of marchers arrived at the Lincoln Memorial and spilled onto out into the mall. Bare feet dangled in the reflecting pool. People munched on box lunches. Next slide please. Sing We Shall Overcome hand in hand as folk singer Joan Baez leads the chorus of voices. Sing When the Spirit Says Sing. Bayard had carefully composed the program for the March on Washington. Each song, each speaker. The speakers inspired. The singers performed. The crowd listened and cheered, clapped and chanted. Music had always been at the center of Bayard's life. Songs from church. Songs sung with the college quartet. Songs he wrote, sang and recorded. Prison songs and chain gang songs. The songs of the countries he visited. The songs of the people he met. Songs of peace. Songs of protest. Next slide please. The 2,500 marchers left that day committed to work, vote and protest non-violently for civil rights. Thousands of reporters, photographers and other members of the media shared the story of the peaceful march with America and the world. The monumental march led to the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That law ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination. A quiet man orchestrated it all. A man behind a movement. An unsung hero, a gay African-American. Bayard Rustin, finally a song for you. Sing Ain't That Good News When the Day Is Finally Done. And so that is an excerpt from a song for the unsung. We can stop showing the slides now and I'll talk just a little bit about the back matter because the back matter is quite rich. In addition to a brief biography, just two paragraph biography of Bayard Rustin that appears in the back matter, there's also a timeline. Bayard Rustin was born in 1912 and died in 1987. There we also show the official program for the March on Washington that was referenced earlier during this program and is among the holdings of the National Archives. And we talk about the history of peaceful protest and the influence of Mohandas Gandhi on Bayard Rustin and how Bayard Rustin passed on that philosophy to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King during the Montgomery bus boycott. And we also have a section in the back matter that talks about the music behind the movement and how important protest songs were to sustaining not only the protest but also sustaining the protesters particularly when they were jailed. And we have the text of the song, We Shall Overcome, at least the first verse of it as part of the back matter and the 10 demands of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. And I will read just a couple of those demands. And of course we know that the demands were met by the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The first demand comprehensive and effective civil rights legislation from the President of Congress without compromise or filibuster to guarantee all Americans access to all public accommodations, decent housing, adequate and integrated education and the right to vote withholding of federal funds from all programs in which discrimination exists. Enforcement of the 14th amendment, reducing congressional representation of states where citizens are disenfranchised. And I skipped one and it's probably one of the most important ones for children, desegregation of all school districts in 1963 and there are 10 demands and you can read more about those in the text of the book. And also in the archives in the program that the National Archives holds of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. And we also have a biography, a bibliography that includes not only books that children can read to learn more about the civil rights movement but also books that we consulted that Rob Sanders and I consulted to do our research. So I'm gonna turn it back over to Missy and for some questions. I'm waiting for Missy. Missy McNat. Well, I'll continue talking about the book then. I love African-American spirituals and it was really a treat for me to be able to integrate so many into this book. One of my favorites, I can remember when I played piano I could play, nobody knows the trouble I've seen. This little light of mine, I learned as a little girl in Sunday school. I love down by the riverside as well as ain't gonna let nobody turn me round. When I've done the best I can, I believe it was one of my grandfather's favorite songs and many of us know when the saints go marching in. So those are some of the spirituals that are integrated, at least the titles of the spirituals that are integrated and referenced, invoked in the text of a song for the unsung. So I'm hoping that Missy won't use words. I think I'm un-mute it now. I'm having some issues with it. It's like my computer was frozen for a minute. Oh, no problem. So I think I'm back and I'm not sure we're gonna get the video back but that's fine. So thank you so much, Ms. Rutherford, for your presentation. It was excellent. And the first thing I'd like to say is that I was mispronouncing the name, it's Bayard. I think I was saying Bayard. So my apologies for that. But thank you. And also we have some folks here from Willow Spring, North Carolina who are watching. So if anyone else from across the country would like to write where you're watching from, we will call it out. We have a few questions for you. And the first one is in doing your research in all of your books or the one particularly about Mr. Rustin, was there any surprises, anything that has surprised you in the course of writing this book or any of the books that you have written going back to the 1990s? I didn't know an awful lot about Bayard Rustin when I embarked on this project with Rob Sanders. So I mean, it surprised me the degree of homophobia that existed within the movement and of course in society at that time and how risky it was for a gay man to be himself or for a gay woman to be herself at that time. So the fact that his work was so essential to the movement, yet at various times he was ostracized from the movement was just very, very sad to me. And somewhat surprising that we couldn't see that LGBTQ plus people, which that wasn't even a term then deserve equal rights as well. So that was somewhat surprising and very sad to me, the degree of persecution that out gay people had to endure at that time. Yeah, and as you pointed out, so Mr. Rustin was facing these double prejudices and throughout his life in so many ways and perhaps one of the reasons that he was more interested in saying more in the background but as you also said, he was an amazing organizer. So he did, you pointed out that he loved to sing, were there ever any recordings of any of his songs? Yes, there is a recording. And let me see if we have that in the back matter. I don't think we have, we may or may not. Let me check. I don't see the, I don't see the recording in here but there is a recording and I think he may be able to hear some of that on YouTube. Okay, so perhaps people can check it out there. So, and then another question in all of your research as you've researched so many different people over the years, was anybody has become a bit of a favorite for you? Well, I probably already had a favorite before I embarked on this career and that would be Billie Holiday because she's my muse. And so I have a book called Becoming Billie Holiday and of course her connection to the civil rights movement is through the song Strange Fruit and anti-menshing him, which I'm sure that Bayard Rustin listened to. It was, you know, he was her contemporary and so I'm sure he knew that song. So yeah, that was what she was one. And I mentioned the fact that Harriet Tubman was one of my early, early heroes. I grew up in Maryland and Harriet Tubman was a Marylander. I have ties to Eastern Shore of Maryland as, which is where Harriet Tubman hailed from. And so she was one of my early heroes and I feel an affinity for her as well. Yeah, they're both amazing, amazing people. So that's great. And you also wrote a book about Matthew Henson and I'm gonna mention just at the very end that we are having a program, the next program is in fact about Matthew, we have a Matthew Henson reenactor. So that's, yes, and there are quite a few records that the National Archives connected to him, which is just amazing the records we have. So we are getting close to the end of our program and we have our final question for you. What advice do you as an author and storyteller have for our youth today? I think I'm gonna give some advice based on this book and perhaps based on other books as well. And it is that demographics does not determine destiny. It doesn't matter how old you are, it doesn't matter where you come from geographically, it doesn't matter what color your skin is, it doesn't matter what ethnicity you are, we all have, we all can contribute and we all have value. And that's really what I want young people to remember, that we all have value, you should value yourself but also value other people because we all have gifts and talents and energy that we can contribute to advancing as a society. Now that's wonderful advice and I hope that everyone out there, especially our young people, take that to heart. So thank you so very much for joining us this morning and look forward to reading your book. And that just sounds like a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the civil rights movement and Mr. Rustin. So thank you again and have a wonderful day. So if we could just pull up that Docs Teach slide again. So this again, encourage everyone out there to check out docsteachdocsteach.org and again, look for this particular activity or do searches for Bayard Rustin and the civil rights movement in the March on Washington. So I encourage you to do that. And then our last slide is for our next program. The National Archives Comes Alive Young Learners Program to meet Matthew Henson, Polar Explorer on Thursday, February 9th at 11 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. So thank you everyone for joining us today.