A lifelong advocate of peaceful protest, Bayard Rustin would become one of the driving forces behind the US civil rights movement \u2013 though his sexuality forced him into the shadows. With the arrival of the Netflix film about his life, Nige Tassell explores the real Rustin <\/p>
An advocate of pacifist agitation, Bayard Rustin was a pivotal figure within the civil rights movement<\/a> in the United States during the 1960s.<\/p>\n He was not only the leading force behind the highly significant March on Washington<\/a> in 1963, but he was also a close adviser and confidante of Dr Martin Luther King<\/a> until the latter\u2019s assassination in Memphis in 1968.<\/p>\n But Rustin remains a less-heralded figure of the civil rights movement, who faced both discrimination and opposition due to his status as an openly gay man.<\/p>\n Despite working behind-the-scenes rather than in the limelight, his legacy is that of a lifelong commitment to pacifism and social justice.<\/p>\n