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Black History Month Spotlight: Bayard Rustin

Submitted by Jahmoni Bartee Intern at the Office of Inclusive Diversity, Equity, Access, and Accountability
February 04, 2021
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Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin

(March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987)

Rustin was an activist and strategist for the Civil Rights Movement. He brought the idea to use Gandhi’s protest techniques to the civil rights movement. Rustin organized the March on Washington in 1963, one of the largest nonviolent protest in the United States. He helped mold Martin Luther King Jr. into an international symbol of peace and nonviolence. Despite his contributions to the movement he was threatened or fired from leadership positions because he was an openly gay man.

 

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