BLACK PRIDE
Why The Black Community Should Proudly Support Black Queer Heroes
More people should be quoting Bayard Rustin
Black Queer heroes are often hidden from mainstream conversations about the civil rights movement. It’s why most Americans can tell you about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but not about Bayard Rustin, an openly gay Black man who organized the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. A. Philip Randolph, a civil rights organizer responsible for founding the nation’s first major Black labor union, gave Rustin the nickname “Mr. March on Washington” for organizing efforts that brought more than a quarter million people to gather near the Lincoln Monument. King wrote a letter to a colleague in 1960 saying, “We are thoroughly committed to the method of nonviolence in our struggle, and we are convinced that Bayard’s expertness and commitment in this area will be of inestimable value.”
Police officers arrested 41-year-old Rustin in 1953 for having a homosexual relationship with a man under California Penal Code section 647 .5, a “morals” law designed to persecute members of the LGBTQ+ community for same-sex relationships. While Rustin passed away in 1987, the California Legislative Black and LGBTQ Caucuses advocated for a pardon of Bayard Rustin, inspired by his role as a humanitarian and civil rights…
