Celebrating Bayard Rustin – Gay Civil Rights Leader and MLK’s Confidant

Today is MLK Day in the U.S., where we celebrate the life and times of the iconic civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Everyone knows the man behind the push for non-violent protests, the Selma March, and, of course, the 1963 March on Washington, where he gave his world-changing "I Have a Dream" speech, a march that helped lead to the creation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. But who organized that march? Who did Dr. King bounce his ideas off? That man was Bayard Rustin, an out loud and proud gay man.

Rustin was born and raised in West Chester, PA, which is where his civil rights ideologies were first formed; he was raised by his maternal grandparents, both devout Quakers. Like so many of our gay fam, Rustin knew from an early age that he was gay. When he was a youth, Rustin told his grandmother that he liked spending time with boys rather than girls. Ever the accepting Quaker, his grandmother responded, "I suppose that's what you need to do."

Rustin entered Wilberforce College, one of the nation's HBCUs. He quickly became active in the social justice groups at Wilberforce, which lead to him being expelled in 1934 after he organizing a strike to protest the "bad food in the dorms." After leaving Wilberforce, Rustin moved to Harlem, New York, where he met A. Philip Randolph, a union organizer and founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, and the man who would become Rustin's mentor.

After being arrested in the 1940s for refusing to register for the draft in favor of his Quaker principles, Rustin met Dr. King in 1956 as one of his advisers during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Rustin and his Quaker beliefs are largely credited with being a major influence on Dr. King's focus on non-violent resistance.

Because Rustin was out as a gay man, he was by and large left out of any public credit during the time, though posterity has shown how instrumental he was to the entire Civil Rights Movement. In the 1970s, Rustin met Walter Naegle. The two fell in love and remained partners until Rustin's death in 1987. And even into his later years, all throughout 1980s, Rustin continued to use his voice for social justice, becoming one of the most prominent figures in the Gay Rights Movement and was awarded multiple honorary doctorates for his work towards social justice.

In 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Bayard Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian commendation our country can bestow on someone. Here is the excerpt from that ceremony:

Happy Martin Luther King Day, to all our readers. And let's always remember the badass work of our gay brethren who led the Civil Rights Movement, but specifically, Dr. Bayard Rustin.

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