Mentor and Partner
Of the two, Martin Luther King Jr. is by far the most well-known. Whether this is because of King’s assassination, his highly publicized speeches, or continued discrimination because of Rustin’s homosexuality, it is unknown. What is known is that Rustin played a large role in the organization that brought King’s success.
Rustin was a huge player in the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, and helped King organize the marches that he was famous for, and helped set up the Southern Christian Leadership Conference that King headed and was part of what made Martin Luther King Jr. a success.
Bayard Rustin preached non-violence, which he learned from observing Mahatma Gandhi. It is also known that he was a major influence on Martin Luther King Jr. in this area.
Throughout his life, Rustin was a key leader in well over two dozen organizations that were founded to fight discrimination. He was an economic leader in that he helped young black people reach gainful employment, and he fought for equal pay and equal rights.
After King’s assassination, and as the nation moved towards more equal treatment for African Americans, Bayard Rustin refocused on Gay Rights, which he had fought for his entire life. In the 1980s he supported Gay Rights bills that passed through the New York State Legislature. His speech “The New Niggers Are Gays,” was perhaps prophetic of changes that the US is going through today in terms of Gay Rights.
He said in 1986: “Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new “niggers” are gays…. It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change….”
While many historians claim that Rustin is the “Father of Gay Rights” he himself disagreed with that sentiment, stating that he was much more focused on rights for African-Americans in his youth, and only “came out of the closet” because he was forced to do so in the 1950s.
We wouldn’t know what Martin Luther King Jr.’s views are on the Gay Rights Movement. Only one quote exists about gay rights from King and that came in 1958 in the magazine Ebony where he called it a “problem”.
In the end Bayard Rustin is a central figure in American history, even if he isn’t well-known in the mainstream. He is overshadowed by Martin Luther King Jr., but he isn’t forgotten. Both President Ronald Reagan and President Barack Obama praised Rustin during their times in office. Rustin was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013.
Rustin died in 1987 of natural causes. He continued to fight for equality to his dying day. Bayard Rustin once wrote about his own life, saying “The principal factors which influenced my life are 1) nonviolent tactics; 2) constitutional means; 3) democratic procedures; 4) respect for human personality; 5) a belief that all people are one.”