Bayard Rustin

African American activist Bayard Rustin served as a key figure in the civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights movements. In front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., on the morning of August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressed nearly 250,000 marchers participating in the March on Washington. And as Dr. King spoke, another guy was working behind the scenes as a crucial component of the movement. Bayard Rustin was there. He was the one who mentored Dr. King, planned the historic 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and persuaded Dr. King to embrace nonviolence as a way of life.

Rustin was an African American activist and pioneer in the struggles for LGBT rights, socialism, civil rights, and nonviolence. During the stifling restrictions of the pre-Stonewall period, he made the decision to be out about his sexuality while pursuing social justice activities that put him in the public view. He was gay, which is the only explanation for why he stayed in the background and is now less well-known than other figures from the civil rights struggle.

Rustin was a gay man who frequently served as a powerful advisor to civil rights leaders behind the scenes owing to criticism over his sexual orientation. He started speaking at events as an activist and defender of human rights in the 1980s, when he started acting as a public spokesman for LGBT issues. Rustin joined other union leaders in embracing doctrinal neoconservatism later in life while still committed to defending workers' rights, and (after his passing) President Ronald Reagan hailed him. Rustin received the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously from President Barack Obama on November 20, 2013.

Detailed information:
Full name: Bayard Rustin
Date of birth: 17 March 1912
Date of death: 24 August 1987
Known for:

• Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Interracial primer, New York: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1943
• Interracial workshop: progress report, New York: Sponsored by Congress of Racial Equality and Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1947