Rustin, Bayard << BY urd >> (1912?-1987), was an African American civil rights leader. A Quaker and a pacifist, he believed in achieving civil rights by nonviolent means.
In 1947, Rustin helped organize the first “freedom ride” into the Southern United States to protest racial discrimination. He also helped create the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), founded in 1957 and then led by Martin Luther King, Jr., until 1968. Rustin was the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, D.C. About 250,000 people took part in the march to protest racial injustice in the United States. Also in the 1960’s, Rustin and African American labor leader A. Philip Randolph cofounded the A. Philip Randolph Institute (APRI) to work toward economic and social justice. Because Rustin was openly gay, he was forced out of many leadership positions during his life. But he held leadership positions in APRI for a number of years.
Rustin was born on March 17, 1910 or 1912, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He died on Aug. 24, 1987. In 2013, United States president Barack Obama posthumously awarded Rustin a Presidential Medal of Freedom. The biographical motion picture Rustin was released in 2023. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, were executive producers of the film.
