← 10 Black LGBT Trailblazers – Still Black & Proud

Bayard-Rustin-620×480

By Anslem Samuel | Published July 7, 2011 | Full size is 620 × 480 pixels

BAYARD RUSTIN: Civil rights activist, Bayard Rustin is best known for his masterful work as the leading organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The historic event remains one of the largest nonviolent protests ever in the U.S. and is largely credited with helping to pass both the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Rustin was also credited with instilling Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with Gandhian principles of nonviolent protest techniques. Despite such major contributions to the advancement of civil rights, Rustin himself was constantly a target of workplace discrimination, arrests and violence as an openly gay man in an era when homophobia was extremely rampant. During the latter half of his over 50 years of public service work, Rustin became increasingly vocal of gay and universal human rights to uplift the oppressed people around the world.

BAYARD RUSTIN: Civil rights activist, Bayard Rustin is best known for his masterful work…

(Image: Getty)