One of my favorite heroes from our history is Bayard Rustin, the chief organizer for the Reverend Doctor Martin L. King, Jr. of the monumental 1963 civil rights march on Washington, DC. Bayard was born on March 17, 1910 and was raised by his Quaker grandparents in West Chester, PA. in the 1930s, he moved to Harlem, New York City during the height of the Harlem Renaissance. He was active in the Young Communist League in their work against racial segregation.
During World War II, he refused to register for the selective service system having adopted the nonviolent principles espoused by Mahatma Gandhi. The result was spending three years in a federal penitentiary. During the late 1940s and 1950s, he helped organize nonviolent groups that soon became the leaders in the Civil Rights Movement for Blacks. Among those he cofounded were the Congress of Racial Equality and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 1955, he was a key person leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It was during this time that Mr. Rustin persuaded Dr. King and other boycott leaders to committ the Civil Rights movement to total nonviolence.
Mr. Rustin experienced prejudice firsthand. Initially, he suffered racial discrimination when being Black still meant second-class citizenship or worse. Once he selfidentified as gay, he again suffered bigotry due to his sexual orientation. Brother Bayard was Black and gay at a time when neither was popular nor welcome. On account of his sexuality, he was often given "behind-the-scenes" responsibilities in the Civil Rights struggle.
Bayard Rustin died on August 24, 1987.
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