Collections by Michelle Brown WSG Activist Robt Seda-Schreiber

Collections by Michelle Brown

Robt Seda-Schreiber is Chief Activist of the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice in New Jersey. Named for the civil rights leader who was the primary architect of the 1963 March on Washington, this community activist center is an educational enclave and a safe-space for all people. Robt established the Center with the explicit consent of Bayard Rustin’s partner, Walter Naegle, with a strong desire to ensure every individual- whether it be in a school, in a workplace, or in everyday life- feels safe, protected, & loved. In June 2017 he was recognized as the National Education Association’s Social Justice Activist of the Year. In 2014 he received the New Jersey Education Association Equality Champion Award which honors members who have been champions in defense of human and civil rights. As an art teacher in the Kreps Middle School in East Windsor, New Jersey, Robt ran that school’s Gay-Straight Alliance. He believes it is important for students to have allies in the classroom if they are LGBTQ because the very existence of Gay-Straight Alliances saves lives every day, both literally and figuratively. As Chief Activist of the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice, Robt has moved forward with his experience, knowledge, & passion, to bring his service to a greater platform—to serve & defend the LGBTQ community. His passion is in part driven by memories of a beloved uncle who was gay but couldn’t come out because his father wouldn’t have understood and as an adolescent, seeing these issues of identity, especially for youth, being shrouded in secrecy and instilling a sense of shame and wrongness on his peers.