Black LGBTQ+ folks helped lead the civil rights movement. Homophobia buried their stories.

Bayard Rustin at news briefing on the Civil Rights March on Washington in the Statler Hotel, half-length portrait, seated at table
Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Warren K. Leffler

It has been 60 years since Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have A Dream” speech on the steps of The Lincoln Memorial at The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Today, history reflects this moment as intended — a turning point in the fight for racial and economic justice and the catalyst for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

But for decades, gay strategist and King advisor Bayard Rustin has remained a footnote in the retelling of this historic day. Rustin was the lead organizer behind the march, yet his legacy has long remained trapped within the privileged halls of academia and has come dangerously close to complete erasure.

The undermining of Rustin’s legacy and the blatant disregard for the influential principles of nonviolence he introduced to King was by design. For decades, activists agreed to cast Rustin as an extra instead of a leading player due to his sexuality…

Read full story, and more, from Source: Black LGBTQ+ folks helped lead the civil rights movement. Homophobia buried their stories.

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