Image taken from http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.01272

 Because of his sexuality, Bayard Rustin is someone who has been forgotten since the days of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.  Many people do not know his name and the many valulable things he did in his career.  This is mainly because he was a homosexual.

Bayard Rustin was born on March 17, 1912 in West Chester, Pennsylvania.  His biological father never recognized him as his son.  His biological mother was a young, neglectful teenager who Bayard believed was his older sister.  Because of these things, he he was rasied by his maternal grandparents.  They pushed him to graduate from high school and attend Wilberforce University and Cheney State Teachers College.  While he excelled in high school, he never graduated from college (Kennedy). 

In 1937, he moved to New York City where he remained for the rest of his life.  He held various jobs while in New York City. These included teaching English to immigrants, performing in a musical starring Paul Robeson, joining a folk-singing group (Carbado & Weise 1145). While in New York, he joined the Communist Party because he was attracted in part by its militant antiracism. However, he broke with the Party because of “the aftermath of Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union, when the party insisted that its member suspend protests against American racism for the sake of the wartime alliance against Hitler (Kennedy). 

While in New York, he found his life in the gay music scene. This gave him access to Harlem’s gay circles. Bayard became "adept at navigating the social mores of African-American elite, where lesbians and gay man were accepted so long as they did not flaunt their sexuality in ways that, in the eyes of the elite, undermined black respectability (Carbado & Weise 1145).

By 1941, Bayard Rustin removed himself from the Communist Party. After this, he joined up with A. Philip Randolph in planning the 1941 March on Washington Movement, which never happened. He also joined A.J. Muste and his Fellowship of Reconciliation, which influenced him to found CORE, Congress of Racial Equality.  During this time, he embarked on several trips that included a trip to India which helped them push for nonviolent direct action. All this publicity also led him to several run-ins with the police. In 1953, Muste had had enough of Rustin’s lifestyle because it jeopardized FOR’s reputation so he asked Rustin to give a volunteer resignation (Carbado & Weise 1163).

After this, he joined Martin Luther King, Jr. He started to help out down in Montgomery with the bus boycotts. However, after a while, King saw the potential of Rustin’s past haunting the boycotts so he was sent back to New York. After this, he laid the groundwork for the SCLC. He wanted to be able to administer the SCLC but that possibility was haunted by his homosexuality or mainly the objections to it (Kennedy). In April 1960, Bayard left his involvement with the SCLC.

In 1963, A. Philip Randolph asked Rustin to plan the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. However, this appointment was hotly contested, mainly because of his past and his homosexuality. There was a compromise among the Big Six. Whitney Young suggested that Randolph be the Director. He agreed but warned, "I want to warn you before you vote that if I’m made leader, I’m going to be given the privilege of determining my staff…I also want you to know that I’ll make Bayard Rustin my deputy" (Carbado & Weise 1177).  Thus, he planned the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. 

In his later years, he spoke out about the Vietnam War and the gay rights movement. He died in New York on August 24, 1987. Rustin’s private life oftentimes got him in trouble with the law. This explains why his name is pretty much erased from the history books and few people know he was the one that pushed and planned the March on Washington.

Works Cited

Carbado, Devon W., and Donald Weise.  "The Civil Rights Identity of Bayard Rustin."  Texas Law Review.  82 (2004): 1135-1195.  Academic

      Search Elite.  OSU-Tulsa Lib., Tulsa, OK. 26 Nov 2007 <http://www.ebscohost.com>.

Kennedy, Rayard.  "From Protest to Patronage."  The Nation.  29 Sept 2003.  The Nation.  9 Dec 2007   

       http://www.thenation.com/doc/20030929/kennedy