Rustin, Bayard

Rustin, Bayard, 1910–87, African-American civil-rights leader, b. West Chester, Pa. He attended three colleges but did not obtain a degree. A Quaker, he was imprisoned as a conscientious objector for more than two years during World War II. Devoting much of his early career to pacifist activities, he was (1941–53) on the staff of the Fellowship of Reconciliation and headed (1953–55) the War Resisters League. In the early 1940s, Rustin also founded the New York branch of the Congress of Racial Equality, and he soon became a key figure in the struggle for African-American civil rights. As special assistant (1955–60) to Martin Luther King, Jr., he helped set up the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and, more generally, played an influential role in infusing King's movement with the Gandhian philosophy of nonviolence (see Gandhi, Mohandas. Later, working in association with A. Philip Randolph, Rustin was the chief organizer of the massive 1963 March on Washington. From 1964 to 1987 he served as president of the Randolph Institute, a trade-union, educational, and civil-rights group. An openly gay man in a largely homophobic era, Rustin was usually obliged to employ his superb organizational and strategic skills behind the scenes.

Bibliography

See his collected writings in Down the Line (1971) and Time on Two Crosses (2003), ed. by D. W. Carbado and D. Weise; biographies by J. Anderson (1997) and J. D'Emilio (2003); studies by N. Dobrosky (1988), J. Haskins (1997), and D. Levine (1999); N. D. Kates and B. Singer, dir., Brother Outsider (documentary film, 2003).

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Rustin, Bayard

(born March 17, 1910, West Chester, Pa., U.S.—died Aug. 24, 1987, New York, N.Y.) U.S. civil rights leader. He organized the New York branch of the Congress of Racial Equality in 1941 and worked for the Fellowship of Reconciliation from 1941 to 1953. In the 1950s he was an adviser to Martin Luther King, Jr., and helped organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He was the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington to rally support for pending civil rights legislation. He later served as president (1966–79) of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, a civil rights organization.

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Rustin, Bayard (1910–87) institute head, civil rights activist; born in West Chester, Pa. Schooled in literature and history at Cheyney State (Pa.) and Wilberforce (Ohio) Colleges, he joined the Young Communist League (1936) and became an organizer (1938). He also sang occasionally at a New York City nightclub with notables Josh White and Leadbelly. He left the Communist Party (1941) and joined the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a nonviolent antiwar group. In 1940–41, he helped A. Philip Randolph plan a threatened march on Washington to demand better job opportunities for blacks in the defense industrry. He served several jail terms in the 1940s; for conscientious objection during World War II (released 1945), for demonstrating in the American Indian independence movement, and for participating in a North Carolina "freedom ride" (1947). He was involved in various pacifist movements (1947–55), then joined the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) (1955) as Martin Luther King's special assistant, serving as the organizational coordinator for the SCLC March on Washington (1963). Named executive director of the newly founded A. Philip Randoph Institute (1964–87), he worked to promote programs to cure America's social and economic ills. Although over the years he advocated the orderly seizure of political power by activist blacks, white liberals, religious parties, and labor unions to effect a rebalance of national priorities, he never favored black separatism.