Rustin Bayard, a key advisor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Rustin Bayard is not as well known as other civil rights leaders. Yet, he is perhaps one of the major figures who became instrumental in the success of the Civil Rights movement. The reasons behind his less prominent visibility have nothing to do with his role. In large part because he was Black and gay and his brief flirtation, during his twenties, with Communism, he was forced to remain in the background.
Despite that, he played his role and remained a trusted advisor of Dr King and an effective leader. Rustin Bayard was a brilliant thinker and strategist a radical pacifist, with an incredible charm to win converts to