Bayard Rustin was a key ally and consultant for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker, and countless other civil rights leaders in the 1960s. Most celebrated for his efforts to organize the historic 1963 March on Washington, Rustin was also co-founder of both the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
In addition to the March on Washington, Rustin worked alongside King to develop the strategy for the Montgomery Bus Boycotts, a successful, yearlong strike that served as one of the first major victories of the ascending Civil Rights Movement.
“As I watched the people walk away, I had a feeling that no force on earth can stop this movement,” said Rustin at the conclusion of a Montgomery Improvement Association meeting. “It has all the elements to touch the hearts of men.”
Rustin was born on March 17, 1912, one of 12 children raised by his Quaker grandparents in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
He worked in multiple progressive groups into the 1940s, and was asked by his future mentor and labor titan A. Phillip Randolph to plan a mass march on Washington in 1941, just before President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order to allow Black workers in the growing defense industry.
Rustin later led the A. Phillip Randolph Institute, seeking to integrate unions and expand Black membership in labor unions— a mission that group continues to this day.
During the later years of his life, Rustin became a vocal advocate for gay rights.
Much of Rustin’s organizing efforts were not credited to him during his life. While he did not seek credit for his work on some endeavors; he was also outright erased in others instances, primarily due to his status as an openly gay man, decades before same-sex marriages were legalized and national attitudes regarding the LGBQIA+ community became even moderately progressive.
“Rustin organized the March on Washington in an eight-week period, without cell phones, without email, without faxes. So he and his team were working the phones hard, typing letters constantly,” said Michael G. Long, editor of “I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin’s Life in Letters” and co-author of “Bayard Rustin: The Invisible Activist.” “From what I hear, the headquarters was in sheer chaos all the time. And Rustin thrived in an environment like that.”
Rustin died on Aug. 24, 1987, from a perforated appendix.
He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama on November 20, 2013.
