“To be afraid is to behave as if the truth were not true.”
- Name: Bayard Rustin
- Born: March 17, 1912
- Died: August 24, 1987
- From: West Chester, PA. Died in Manhattan, NY.
- Pronouns: he/him
- Contribution/Impact:A civil rights organizer and activist
- Occupation: LGBTQ and civil rights activist
- Known For: Strategies for freedom: The changing patterns of Black protest (1976), I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin’s Life in Letters
- Awards: His civil rights writings were published in the collection Down the Line in 1971 and in Strategies for Freedom in 1976. Presidential Medal of Freedom (2013) (Posthumously)
- Interesting Facts:When he was still a child, Rustin discovered that the people he believed to be his parents were actually his grandparents and his “eldest sister” was actually his mother.
Bayard Rustin was born into a large family and was brought into the Quaker lifestyle from an early age. His grandmother, Julia Rustin, was also a member of the NAACP and as such many influential figures, like W. E. B. Du Bois, frequented Rustin’s home. Rustin grew up to be much like his grandmother in both Quaker spirit and activism as he went on to organize protests for civil rights such as the famous 1963 March on Washington. Known as the “Lost Prophet” Rustin passed in 1987 in a New York City hospital after a heart attack.
Handout
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