Bayard Rustin, most noted for his behind-the-scenes work with Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil rights movement, was more than an activist for racial equality. He was committed to economic justice, labor rights, and by the end of his life, he had taken on humanitarian causes.
Bayard Rustin’s Activist Upbringing
Bayard Rustin was born on March 17, 1912 in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Rustin had a rocky start in life. His mother, an unmarried woman, left him in the care of his grandparents. Rustin’s grandparents had a positive influence on his life and were instrumental in his future. Rustin looked on as his grandmother, a member of the NAACP, invited well known activists to stay in their home. Overnight visitors included W.E.B. Du Bois, James Weldon Johnson, and Mary McLeod Bethune.
Rustin’s grandmother nurtured the activist spirit in him through the use of Quaker teachings. The Quakers believed that all people, regardless of race, were equal. Thus, for the Quakers, segregation laws were immoral. When Rustin matured, it was the Quaker stance on equality, and not his race that led to his participation in the civil rights movement.
Rustin Works with the Communists
In 1932, after Rustin graduated from high school, he moved to Ohio to attend Wilberforce University. As a tenor, he established himself as an asset to the Wilberforce Quartet, but after two years at the university, he decided to move on. He eventually landed in New York City in 1937. He attended City College of New York and worked as a backup singer. Rustin’s passion for equality, however, led him to the Young Communist League. It was a brief membership that ended when he discovered that the group’s commitment to the end of discrimination was overrode by other causes.
Bayard Rustin Embraces Pacifism
Rustin’s 1941 departure led him on a new path. He worked briefly with labor leader A. Philip Randolph at the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, but decided instead to put his effort into the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR), a peace organization. It was during this time that he became a pacifist. His study of Gandhi and his close working relationship with the organization’s leader, A.J. Muste, influenced his refusal to comply with the draft act. As a result, Rustin was sentenced to three years in federal prison.
Shortly after Rustin’s release from prison, he participated in the FOR and Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) sponsored freedom rides in 1947. The rides were designed to test the Supreme Court ruling desegregating interstate buses. Rustin’s participation resulted in his arrest and conviction. He was sentenced to thirty days on a chain gang.
Rustin Joins the Civil Rights Movement
In 1953, Rustin broke off with FOR after his well publicized arrest for homosexual lewd conduct threatened to harm the reputation of the organization. Two years later, when Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as the leader of the Montgomery bus boycott, Rustin began his mentorship of King on nonviolent resistance. Once the boycott ended, Rustin urged King to form an organization dedicated to civil rights; with the help of Rustin, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was created in 1957.
Rustin’s contribution to the civil rights movement was instrumental to its success. He was an adept organizer who was most noted for his management of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. His homosexual orientation, however, was at times a barrier. He was often forced to work behind-the-scenes with King and the SCLC.
Bayard Rustin Moves beyond Civil Rights
In 1965, Rustin decided to move away from civil rights. By this time, he believed that economic equality had become more important than civil rights. In 1968, Rustin and Randolph founded the A. Philip Randolph Institute, an organization dedicated to labor rights. Rustin became the executive director of the group.
In the 1970s, Rustin began working for humanitarian causes. He served as the vice chairman of the refugee aid organization, the International Rescue Committee, and he worked with the group, Project South Africa. Rustin’s commitment to humanitarian causes came to an end on August 24, 1987, when he died of a perforated appendix in New York City.
