By Tracy Gibson
Edited by D. Kevin McNeir

Bayard Rustin (March 17, 1912 - August 24, 1987) was an African-American civil rights activist whose name has become synonymous with the quest for justice, freedom and equality. Later in life he became an advocate for gay and lesbian causes but would suffer constant attacks because of his sexual orientation.


 

Before his death he said, "Twenty-five, thirty years ago, the barometer of human rights in the United States were black people.
That is no longer true. The barometer for judging the character of people in regard to human rights is now those who consider themselves gay, homosexual, lesbian."
 
 
 
The West Chester, PA native graduated from West Chester High School before matriculating at Wilberforce University in Ohio and later, Cheyney State University in Pennsylvania where he was a standout on the debate team and a gifted vocalist. He was, however, asked to leave Cheyney in the winter of 1936 for misbehaving.
 
 
While he would later work closely with such luminaries as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., A. Phillip Randolph, his mentor, Whitney Young, James Farmer, Roy Wilkins, and Dorothy Height, he was as much an equal with them as any of their better-known colleagues.

He created the original ground work for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), which became the spring board for Dr. King's work and helped with the tedious and tenuous work of the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott.

 
 
But upon receiving threats from U.S. Representative Adam Clayton Powell Jr., he was forced to resign from the SCLC in 1960 when Powell promised that he would discuss Rustin's morals charge in Congress. (Rustin had been arrested in California in 1953 pleading guilty to "sex perversion," as consensual sodomy was officially referred to at that time).

Still, Rustin would lend his talents when, with Randolph and King, he served as a major organizer and architect of the August 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where King would deliver his infamous "I Have a Dream" speech. Still, Rustin would be denied his walk in the sunlight when NAACP Chairman Roy Wilkins refused to allow Rustin to receive any public recognition for his role in planning the march.

As a Quaker and pacifist, Rustin's work was not limited to civil rights issues. He was a conscientious objector during WWII. He tried to apply his non-violent pacifism and Gandhi-inspired philosophy to the cruel and brutal system of apartheid in South Africa before such work was popular in the U.S.

He served time in jail and on chain gangs for violating the Selective Service Act and for violating Jim Crow laws regarding segregated seating on public transportation.

A steadfast integrationist and defender of Israel, he also met Golda Meir & Bishop Desmond Tutu. But above all, he very much cherished his relationship with A. Phillip Randolph-his mentor and a father figure for Rustin during his younger days.

 
 
As a standout voice for the oppressed and the downtrodden, Rustin suffered a heart attack in 1971 but continued his work as a pro-labor, anti-war (during Viet Nam) and gay rights activist, even testifying on behalf of the New York State's Gay Rights Bill in the mid-1980s.

Today, when one speaks the name of Bayard Rustin, it is done so to honor the memory of a man who worked for greater participation in the electoral process and for the advancement of civil and human rights.