Bayard Rustin believed deeply in the power of nonviolence during the era of segregation. In the following essay, he describes its use and effect on a bus ride from Louisville to Nashville.

Bayard Rustin was an African American leader who worked for the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) in the 1940s and 1950s for equal rights for all Americans using nonviolence. In this story, he writes about the struggle for an African American man to order a simple hamburger at a restaurant in the Midwest.