www.aron-prince.com

Born in West Chester, Pennsylvania in 1912.

He was raised by his grandmother who instill strong Quaker values and had a tremendous influence on his life.

Aware if the pervasive racism in this country, he did not let anything stop him from getting an education.  He went on to graduate from CCNY.

After college, he became involved with the Young Communist League from 1936-1941.  "They were the only political organiztion that confronted racism at that time."  Yet, his views on issues like Israel, Gay rights, and Pacifism were in direct disagreement with the organization.

After quitting the organization, he later joined forces with A. Philip Randolph, a labor and civil rights leader who was anti-communist.

Randolph totally accepted Bayard as a gay man who was not closeted.

He served a three-year sentence in solitary confinement during WWII for "sexual misconduct."

He served thirty days on a chain gang for organizing the "Journey of Reconciliation" in 1947.

Randolph caught a lot of "heat" because of his defense of Bayard's sexuality.  The relationship between Rustin and many civil rights leaders at the time was forever strained with fear of exposure of his sexuality.

The FBI distributed a misleading photo of Rustin and Martin Luther King, Jr. with poisonous insinuations.

In 1960, he was persuaded to resign from the SCLC rather than let King be tainted.

"Although the chairperson of the 1963 march on Washington was the venerable labor leader A. Philip Randolph, the man who coordinated the staff, finances, travel arrangements, accommodations, publicity, and logistics was Randolph's close associate, Bayard Taylor Rustin."

Strom Thurmond, seeking to discredit the March, called Rustin a ". . . Communist, draft-dodger, and homosexual."

In 1964, Rustin organized a school boycott in New York City, protesting the slow pace of integration.  He later became executive director of the A. Philip Randolph Institute.

He participated in the "Free India" movement and anti-nuclear demonstrations around the world.

He was involved in many causes including Polish and Haitian democracy, as well as world hunger.

He spent the last twelve years of his life living with Walter Naegle.

On August 24, 1987, Bayard Taylor Rustin died of cardiac arrest in New York City.