A man by the name of Bayard Rustin was an integral part of the nonviolent civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s, directly working with Martin Luther King Jr. to organize nonviolent marches, sit-ins, and boycotts. He should be celebrated by all alongside the names of Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks but was unfairly forced out of our history books simply because of his sexuality.
“Martin Luther King, with whom I worked very closely, became very distressed when a number of ministers working for him wanted him to dismiss me from his staff because of my homosexuality,” said Rustin.
Born March 17, 1912, in West Chester, Pennsylvania, Bayard Rustin grew up in a society full of prejudice towards him, not only for the color of his skin but also for his sexuality. It was this prejudice, as well as the values his family instilled in him that led him onto the path that would one day result in him becoming a key contributor to the civil rights movement.
“My activism did not spring from my being gay, or, for that matter, from being Black,” Rustin once said.
“Rather, it is rooted fundamentally in my Quaker upbringing and the values that were instilled in me by my grandparents who reared me.”
Above all, it was the Quaker value of nonviolence that influenced him the most. Due to this, he became a conscientious objector to WWII and refused to enlist in the draft, which led to his arrest in 1944. Rustin recounted his experience, stating
“I am a Quaker, and as everyone knows, Quakers, for 300 years, have, on the conscientious ground, been against participating in war. I was sentenced to three years in federal prison because I could not religiously and conscientiously accept killing my fellow man,” said Rustin.
This was one of the many times he would find himself behind bars due to who he was and his beliefs. Another time would be a 60-day sentence in 1953 when he got arrested on a moral charge for engaging in “homosexual activity”. This would lead to him losing his job as a secretary for student and general affairs for the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Fortunately, this job had already led him to one of the most influential people in his life, his mentor A. Philip Randolph.
Randolph and Rustin became close friends and it was Randolph himself who urged Rustin to meet with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who had started gathering a following in his fight for civil rights. In 1955, Rustin became a key organizer and strategist for Dr. King and was hugely influential on him.
Rustin was the man who pushed MLK to fully embrace pacifism and nonviolence in his movement, using the teachings and philosophies of Gandhi as an example. Together, the two formed a nearly unstoppable team. Dr. King’s powerful speeches and unrivaled leadership skills kept the movement growing, while Rustin used his strategy and organization skills to set up their nonviolent marches and protests.
In 1960, Rustin and Dr. King planned a march on the Democratic National Convention to protest the party’s lackluster stance on civil rights. Unfortunately, Congressman Clayton Powell was sent by the DNC to stop this protest, and the weapon he used to do so was his knowledge of Rustin’s sexuality. Powell told them that if they were to go through with the march, he would falsely accuse Reverend King of having an affair with Rustin.
The face of the civil rights movement having a homosexual affair would not only assassinate King’s character to the general public but also most likely cause the movement he built to collapse. Facing pressure from his peers, and knowing the danger that Rustin’s sexuality could possess for the movement, MLK started distancing himself from Rustin.
Walter Naegle, Rustin’s life partner, said “It was a particularly painful situation for Bayard. He was disappointed that Dr. King didn’t stand up for him, but Bayard understood that this was a political move and it was probably better for Dr. King to do what he did political speaking, in terms of the movement.”
Rustin would also resign from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the agency founded by Dr. King that coordinated many of the nonviolent protests and events for the civil rights movement. One of MLK’s trusted friends and advisors, Clarence Jones, pushed back at Congressman Powell, threatening to litter Harlem with pictures of all the women Powell has slept with, leading Powell to back down from his threats and allow the march to go on as planned, however much of the damage had already been done.
The Civil Rights Movement seemed to stall without Bayard Rustin’s influence, making little progress from 1960 to 1963. King knew he had to bring Rustin back, but this time behind the scenes where his sexuality would be much less of a liability.
When Rustin organized the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, many leaders of the NAACP opposed him having a prominent role in it. Luckily, MLK and fellow civil rights activist John Lewis had a solution, they would have Rustin’s friend and mentor Philip Randolph take over as the director and have Rustin be his deputy, this way he could still run things without being directly at the front of it.
Still, Rustin’s homosexuality become an issue when Senator Strom Thurmond came to stop the march by calling Rustin a draft dodger, communist, and homosexual to the national media. However, this time MLK didn’t waiver and came out in support of Rustin with other civil rights leaders, the march would go on without a hitch and nothing could stop it. That march became one of the most important focal points of the entire civil rights movement, with Dr. King giving his famous “I Have a Dream” speech during it. After the civil rights movement, Rustin continued his activism, fighting for both civil and gay rights until his eventual passing in New York City on August 24, 1987, due to a ruptured appendix.
“Every indifference to prejudice is suicide because if I don’t fight all bigotry, bigotry itself will be strengthened and, sooner or later it will return on me,” said Rustin.
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