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Tributes to Legendary Black Gay Civil Rights Leader Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin—the late civil rights organizer and top lieutenant to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—finally receives some of the recognition that he has long deserved. Recently there have been a number of tributes to the often ignored, black gay civil rights leader who organized the 1963 March on Washington. A musical based on Rustin's life debuted in in suburban Chicago. The new Bayard Rustin High School was dedicated in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

One of the most moving tributes is at Outsports. "Bayard Rustin: Offensive Lineman for Freedom" is an essay written by famed novelist Patricia Nell Warren (The Frontrunner) that illustrates how Rustin honed his civil rights activism on the football field.

With his speed and smarts, a movie script might have made him star quarterback of the West Chester Warriors. Instead Bayard chose to play offensive lineman, left tackle... Bayard’s sheer will to use his strength and psychic force for the team’s benefit made him the Warriors’ MVP. Later a teammate remembered what it was like to run up against Pinhead in a scrimmage. He said, “I found it impossible to get by him. Sometimes, after knocking me down on my face, he would gently help me to my feet and quote a line from a poem.”

On that extraordinary team, some strong black-white friendships were born. But off campus, the boys ran into Jim Crow. All the team members were welcome at [Rustin's] house. But one of Bayard’s best friends was a white boy whose parents wouldn’t let their son invite Bayard to their home. The black team members weren’t allowed in the YMCA or certain restaurants. They had to sit in the segregated balcony at the movie theater. For games out of town, the black players couldn’t stay at the same hotel as their white teammates. Some schools even refused to let their all-white teams play West Chester.

The moment came when Bayard had enough. One weekend, just before the Warriors were to play in a neighboring town, he organized his black teammates into a protest squad. They told the coach that, if they couldn’t have the same accommodations as their white teammates, they weren’t going to play. The coach buckled—though he later retaliated by holding back some track awards that the boys had earned.

After that, there was no stopping Rustin. He led his special team of protesters all over West Chester—into stores, restaurants, the YMCA. The boys were usually thrown out, but they kept trying. One of his followers remembered later, “Bayard’s determination was frightening. But we looked up to him as our leader. He was persuasive. He could sell you anything.”

Patricia Nell Warren notes that around this time Bayard Rustin had his first sexual experiences with other young men "and knew that he was gay. 'I never felt any guilt,' he said later. Indeed, he took the offensive in cruising for one-time experiences."

Thankfully we're finally at a stage in history where we can honor Bayard Rustin for all of his contributions—peace activist, civil rights organizer, athlete, writer. As well as celebrate his taking the offensive in his sexuality and becoming an out, proud black gay man.

Bayard Rustin: Offensive Lineman for Freedom" [Outsports]
Play Shines Light on Civil Rights Leader [Pioneer]

A Little Background ...
Black Museums Should Celebrate Gays [R20]
Billy Strayhorn Documentary on PBS [R20]
Brother Outsider Screenings [R20]
"Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin" on LOGO [R20]

BlackVoices Pays Tribute to Notable Black Gay Men and Lesbians

Just in time for gay pride, AOL/Blackvoices produces a thoughtful microsite devoted to Famous Gay African-Americans. The editors went beyond the usual suspects and devoted slides and bios to 29 contemporary and historical men and women, and, some of the choices were surprising. On the historical side, there is Bayard Rustin, James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, as well as women such as the late Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, author Octavia Butler, and singers Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday. The sexuality of these women is often ignored by mainstream and black media, so their inclusion was commendable.

On the contemporary side, there are bios of Rod 2.0 faves such as Darryl Stephens, Billy Porter and Maurice Jamal, as well as producer/director Lee Daniels, Sheryl Swoopes, Angela Y. Davis, E. Lynn Harris, Kevin Aviance and many others. Several of the inclusions are questionable, such as The Wire's Felecia Snoop Pearson, who is openly lesbian and tells Jasmyne Cannick she has "no thoughts" on homophobia or anti-gay discrimination. Meanwhile, Jasmyne Cannick and Keith Boykin did not make the list.

The new gay and lesbian microsite is a welcome improvement to some of Blackvoice's more superficial recent content.

Thanks Katina and Lynne

"Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin" on LOGO

Bayard Rustin—the civil rights organizer and top lieutenant to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—is finally receiving much of the recognition that he deserved. Tonight and throughout the week, gay-themed LOGO screens Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, the documentary that explores his many accomplishments and exposes why so little is reported of him in black history—because he was openly gay.

"It wasn’t something he focused on, but I think there was a general feeling that had he not been gay, the way he was able to save lives in the movement, or ascend to a leadership position [wouldn’t have had as many] obstacles," says Walter Naegle, Rustin’s surviving partner, who will speak on Wednesday in Atlanta on Rustin's legacy.

Rustin was a gifted political strategist and superb orator, undoubtedly one of the most prominent black gay figures of the 20th century for his instrumental role in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, most notably organizing the famous 1963 March on Washington where Dr. King delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech.

As a form of narration, Brother Outsider relies on the FBI's chilling and extensive surveillance records of Rustin. The reports document a 1953 arrest for lewd vagrancy in Pasadena, California, where the police caught Rustin performing oral sex in the backseat of a car\—with two men. His subsequent arrest and 60-day prison sentence was an albatross around his neck, and often exploited by whites who were opposed to civil rights and black leaders who were jealous of MLK's prominence.

The documentary also details one little-known fact: Rustin was briefly separated from Dr. King's campaign because Rep. Adam Clayton Powell threatened to expose a fabricated sex scandal between the two.

Later in life, Rustin became a gay activist and said the discrimination against gays and lesbians needed to be addressed with the same passion that was used to oppose Jim Crow. "The barometer of where one is on human rights questions is no longer the black community," he said in 1986, one year before dying. "It's the gay community. Because it is the community which is most easily mistreated."

A Little Background ...
Black Museums Should Celebrate Gays [R20]
Billy Strayhorn Documentary on PBS [R20]
Brother Outsider Screenings [R20]

"Brother Outsider" Screenings

Bayard Rustin—the civil rights leader best remembered for organizing the 1963 March on Washington—is finally getting more of the recognition that he deserved. Several colleges are screening Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, the documentary that explores his many accomplishments and exposes why so little is reported of him in black history—because he was openly gay.

By screening the film to students, Rustin's legacy will be preserved ... and maybe some minds will be changed about gay history. "You hear the same thing every year, you hear the 'I have a dream' speech," says Arielle Clay, who co-chaired the recent two-week Martin Luther King 2007 Celebration at the University of Miami. "I felt it would be good to highlight Bayard Rustin to go outside that same box."

The film also details one little-known fact: Rustin was briefly separated from Dr. King's campaign because of a threatened sex scandal rumor between the two activists.

Unfortunately, despite significant progress in gay rights, Rustin's sexuality has kept him from being a common name in textbooks. "We don't necessarily need one particular person to stand up," Arielle Clay says. "But I feel that the African-American community has grown stagnant and that the community is not moving as far forward as we would like it to be."

Brother Outsider will also be screened tomorrow, Thursday Feb 1, as part of the "Out of the Closet and Onto the Screen" series at Ithaca College.

Rustin Left in Closet of History (Miami Hurricane)

Thanks BlackGriot!

A Little Background ...

Black Museums Should Celebrate Gays (Rod 2.0) Billy Strayhorn Documentary on PBS (Rod 2.0) Strayhorn and Bridgers (Wandering Caravan)

News: Sao Paolo, Pharrell, Phill Wilson, Irene Monroe

· São Paolo: One man remains critically injured with stab wounds after he and three friends were viciously attacked by skinheads. Police say the apparent gay bashing happened on the Rua da Consoloção, a street in São Paolo's well-heeled Jardins neighborhood that on the weekends is a popular hangout for younger gays, lesbians, and drag queens who cannot enter the bars and clubs. Made in Brazil reports earlier this month, a gang of skinheads stabbed two men and ran over four others in São Mateus in São Paulo.

· AIDS activist Phill Wilson turns 50. "I found out that I was HIV-positive at 27 and I didn’t think 30 was an option. To be 50 is amazing.”

· Pharrell Williams teaming up with Marc Jacobs to design jewelry for luxury brand Louis Vuitton.

· KeithBoykin.com celebrates four years of fierceness.

· More on the University of Cumberlands, the Kentucky school that expelled a gay student who came out on his MySpace site: Queerty publishes a press release from administrators at the private Baptist college which allegedly explains their actions. Meanwhile, the Gov. Ernie Fletcher approves $11 million for a proposed pharmacy school and activists have filed suit.

· El Salvador: Via Blabbeando, legislation to ban gay marriage & adoptions closer to approval.

There's a great op-ed at Advocate.com by Rev. Irene Moore on embracing immigrants. She asks that blacks—especially lgbt—remember the pro-immigration teachings of Bayard Rustin.

· Asian American lgbt groups send a letter to President Bush and congressional leaders on immigration reform.

Black Museums Should Celebrate Black Gays

Black museums should celebrate gay blacks. Columnist Deb Price interviews William Billingsley, executive director of the Association of African American Museums. "Billingsley acknowledged to me, the nation's 250 black museums are virtually silent when it comes to truthfully describing the lives of gay African-Americans." There have been several notable exceptions, most recently this week in Virginia. The Alexandria Black History Museum showed Brother Outsider, the celebrated PBS documentary that explores the life of civil rights activist Bayard Rustin and the obstacles put in his path because of his sexual orientation.