Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin ( BY-ərd; March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was an American political activist and prominent leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. Rustin was the principal organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. In 1941, Rustin worked with A. Philip Randolph on the March on Washington Movement to press for an end to racial discrimination in the military and defense industry. Rustin later organized Freedom Rides and helped organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to mentor Martin Luther King Jr. on nonviolent resistance. In 1954, Rustin worked alongside Ella Baker, a co-director of the Crusade for Citizenship. Before the Montgomery bus boycott, he helped organize a group called "In Friendship" to provide material and legal assistance to people threatened with eviction from their tenant farms and homes. Rustin became the head of the AFL–CIO's A. Philip Randolph Institute, which promoted the integration of formerly all-white unions and the unionization of African Americans. During the 1970s and 1980s, Rustin served on many humanitarian missions, such as aiding refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia. Rustin was a gay man and, due to criticism of his sexuality, usually advised other civil rights leaders from behind the scenes. During the 1980s, he became a public advocate on behalf of gay causes, speaking at events as an activist and supporter of human rights. Later in life, Rustin shifted toward neoconservative views. As leader of Social Democrats USA, he opposed racial quotas and Black studies programs. He occasionally wrote for Commentary magazine, aligning closely with its publisher, Norman Podhoretz. Upon Rustin's death, President Ronald Reagan paid tribute to his work. On November 20, 2013, Rustin was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama. In 2018, the nonprofit Bayard Rustin Center...