Who was Bayard Rustin?

Portrait illustration of Bayard Rustin, American political activist.

Bayard Rustin. I remember first learning of his name in 2017, when I was in my early 30's. I remember also wondering why we didn’t learn more about this individual in school. Bayard Rustin was a civil rights organizer and activist.

Combining non-violent resistance with organizational skills, he was a key adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. Most famously, Rustin was a key figure in the organization of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, at which King delivered his legendary "I Have a Dream" speech on August 28, 1963. Though he was arrested several times for his own civil disobedience and open homosexuality, he continued to fight for equality. He died in New York City on August 24, 1987. 

Only recently in 2020, California Governor, Gavin Newsom, posthumously pardons civil rights leader Bayard Rustin, for his arrest for "morals charge" in Pasadena in 1953. If only the spirit of Black History Month was all year long so that more stories are shared for awareness.

His story is told in the 2023 film, Rustin, starring Coleman Domingo.