Jump to navigation
John D'Emilio reading, Live From Prairie Lights, February 20, 2004
D'Emilio, John
Englander, Julie
WSUI (Radio station : Iowa City, Iowa) Prairie Lights (Iowa City, Iowa)
WSUI (Radio station : Iowa City, Iowa)
John D’Emilio reads from his nonfiction book, Lost Prophets: the Life and Times of Bayard Rustin. D’Emilio discusses Rustin’s life as an African American homosexual civil rights leader in the early to mid-20th century. Rustin, a self-proclaimed “agitator for justice,” was a famous nonviolent protest leader who corresponded with famous leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Stokely Carmichael. D’Emilio points out that not only is Lost Prophets about Rustin's work with civil rights issues, but is also about how he learned to deal with the homophobia that constantly threatened his career. D’Emilio relays various instances where Rustin was framed and blackmailed because of his sexual orientation. Host Julie Englander plays a few soundclips of Bayard Rustin’s various speeches where he outlines his belief that black and white people had to band together in order to successfully fight racial injustice. As D’Emilio explains, Rustin believed that “an all black politics...was always going to remain a politics of the minority that would be overwhelmed by white resentment.”
Live From Prairie Lights was a live public radio program broadcast from Prairie Lights, an independent bookstore in Iowa City, Iowa. The program showcased new and established writers from around the world.
Authors Writing
Civil rights movement African American Biography Nonfiction novel
Bayard Rustin civil rights movement nonviolence movement homosexuality
Bayard, Rustin, 1912-1987
2000-2010
United States -- Iowa -- Iowa City
00:59:23
MP3 mpeg layer 2 audio @ 32kbps derived from archival WAVE files
Educational use only, no other rights given. U.S. and international copyright laws may protect this digital object. Commercial use or distribution of the object is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder.
Contact the VWU Webmaster: https://www.writinguniversity.org
LPL2004_02_20-32
Sound
broadcastss dramatic readings
mpeg