Join us on September 1st when we honor Bayard Rustin. A close advisor to Martin Luther King and one of the most influential and effective organizers of the civil rights movement, Bayard Rustin was affectionately referred to as “Mr. March-on-Washington.” Although Bayard Rustin was one of the most important leaders of the American civil rights movement from the advent of its modern period in the 1950s until well into the 1980s, his name was seldom mentioned; he received comparatively little press or media attention, and others’ names were usually much more readily associated with the movement than his was. His was a behind-the-scenes role that, for all its importance, never garnered Rustin the public acclaim he may have deserved. Drawing on his Quaker commitment to equality and the organizing he learned at his grandfather’s African Methodist Episcopal church, Rustin devoted his career to non-violent direct action against racism. He maintained a lifelong commitment to pacifism which influenced Martin Luther King, Jr. , who relied on him as an advisor.
September 1st: Honoring Bayard Rustin
