Bayard Rustin Day 2026

Guests arrive, explore the museum exhibits, and connect in community. This hour allows participants to ground themselves in the broader arc of civil and human rights history before we gather to reflect on how we organize the future. 

Fireside Chat: Sean Allen & Walter Naegle

Before Bayard Rustin was a master strategist of the Civil Rights Movement, he was deeply formed by his Quaker faith — a tradition grounded in the belief that every person carries an inner light, that love must replace fear, and that justice must be pursued without cruelty.

In this intimate conversation, Walter Naegle reflects with Sean Allen on the spiritual foundation that shaped Rustin’s moral discipline, strategic patience, and unwavering commitment to human dignity. More than biography, this dialogue invites us to consider what it means to be rooted in light ourselves — and how conscience, courage, and love anchor the work of organizing the future.

Lexi Markham (they/them) is a junior at The Paideia School who has been on the Institute's YOU(th) Belong Advisory Board since it's inception in 2023.

Young Civic Leaders Panel

The Civil Rights Movement gave us a blueprint — disciplined organizing, moral clarity, coalition-building, and an unwavering belief in human dignity. But every generation must decide how to build from that foundation without being confined by it.

This panel brings together Georgia’s next wave of civic leaders — organizers, elected officials, candidates, and advocates — who are carrying forward the spirit of past movements while adapting strategies for a digital, hyper-connected world. Leveraging technology, social media ecosystems, policy innovation, and intersectional frameworks, these leaders are not replicating history — they are innovating within it.

They rise not in rejection of the past, but in conversation with it — honoring the architecture of earlier struggles while recalibrating for the terrain ahead.

Moderated by Leo Seyij Allen

The Civil Rights Movement reshaped the nation — yet even transformative movements carried blind spots. Women were sidelined. Queer leaders were often muted. Gender-expansive people were rarely centered, even when their labor was indispensable.

Pauli Murray — lawyer, theologian, poet, and visionary legal strategist — saw these tensions clearly. A collaborator with Rustin and a critic of sexism at the March on Washington, Murray challenged movements to live up to their own moral claims.

This conversation examines how sexism shaped the Civil Rights era and how trans and non-binary communities have been marginalized within LGBTQ+ advocacy. It asks not only what Pauli might critique — but what Pauli might call us toward.

What does it mean to be ready — ready to widen leadership, tell fuller histories, and move from symbolic inclusion to structural transformation?

Joint Q&A across fireside chat and panels

Moderators field questions that connect Rising and Ready — innovation and accountability in conversation.