The present work is one of Thomas’ signature retroreflective screen prints where an image is printed on retroreflective vinyl. The result is an image that is only visible as the light bounces directly back at the viewer. Put another way, it creates an image that is revealed only by moving in front of the piece or shining a light directly at the piece.  

To activate the retroreflective artwork, please take a photograph using your camera flash.

In this case, the image underlying the rainbow motif is one of Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) speaking at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (August 28, 1963) of which he was the lead-organizer, then the largest demonstration in American History. He identified as both Quaker and queer, which distinguished him from many of the other civil rights leaders with church-organizing origins. He crafted a manual and manifesto for protest-goers which provided both march-logistics and ethics on peaceful protesting. Rustin is an often-overlooked figure in the civil rights movement, with his activism extended to economic injustice, gay rights, and anti-colonialism.

While an integral figure to the success of the civil rights movement, he is lesser known in the collective cultural consciousness for the simple fact that he was an openly gay man and it was considered by other leaders of the movement to be less acceptable to the mainstream.  

The title, “When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him,” is a quote from Rustin spoken later in life.