By: Laila Schwin, Alisha Bains, and Brittney Corrado
February 18, 2021
Bayard Rustin was born on March 17, 1912, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He was an advocate for civil rights and stressed this in a non-violent manner. He was a mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr. and primarily wanted to avoid being in the spotlight. His achievements still went on to be well-known and extremely-influential, but his ultimate goal was to avoid being a public figure and endangering himself.
Rustin was born when his mother was only 16, so he was raised assuming that his mother was his sister and that his grandparents were his parents. His family raised him with Quaker beliefs, which started his life commitment to nonviolent action. He was also surrounded by influential leaders of black communities in his youth due to his grandmother’s involvement with the NAACP, which likely inspired him to play an integral role in this movement.
Rustin went on to get an education at two historically, black schools: Wilberforce University in Ohio and Cheyney State Teachers College in Pennsylvania. In 1937, he moved to New York City to study at the City College of New York. While there, he joined the Young Communist League (YCL). His main drive for joining them was not only for their basic beliefs but also because of their focus on racial justice and equality. Ultimately, he left the YCL as they shifted their beliefs away from the main focus of civil rights.
He later contributed to his nonviolent ideals by taking a trip to India and learning the Gandhian ideals of nonviolence within protest. He later taught these same ideals to Martin Luther King, Jr.
His nonviolent ideals, at one point, led to him being arrested for refusing to register for the draft. He was arrested several other times for participating in protests against segregated public transit in North Carolina as well as for living his life as an openly gay man.
Ultimately, Rustin was the framework for a large amount of work that Dr. King and other figureheads of the Civil Rights Movement are accredited for. Rustin was instrumental in organizing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, multiple 1958 and 1959 Youth Marches for Integrated Schools, and most notably, the 1963 March on Washington D.C. for Jobs and Freedom. He also co-founded the A. Philip Randolph Institute, where he served as company president in 1965.
Bayard Rustin eventually passed away in New York City on August 24, 1987. While Rustin wanted to remain in the background and allow others to be the public figures and important leaders for the Civil Rights Movement, his contributions were undeniable, and the March on Washington D.C. may not have been as successful without him.
He is truly an unsung hero of the Civil Rights Movement.
{Editor’s Note: Information for this article was retrieved from The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute and Biography.com.}
THE RETURN OF THE EYE 