On the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, we’d like to honor and acknowledge Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient, Mr. Bayard Rustin, the man behind the man, the man behind the march, and the man behind the movement.
Who Is Mr. Bayard Rustin You Ask?
A master strategist and tireless activist, Bayard Rustin is best remembered as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, one of the largest nonviolent protests ever held in the United States. He brought Gandhi’s protest techniques to the American civil rights movement, and helped mold Martin Luther King, Jr. into an international symbol of peace and nonviolence. Despite these achievements, Rustin was silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned and fired from important leadership positions, largely because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era. – Bayard Rustin Film Project
BROTHER OUTSIDER (Official Trailer)
On August, 8th 2013, President Barack Obama named Bayard Rustin a posthumous recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. President Obama said, “The Presidential Medal of Freedom goes to men and women who have dedicated their own lives to enriching ours. This year’s honorees have been blessed with extraordinary talent, but what sets them apart is their gift for sharing that talent with the world. It will be my honor to present them with a token of our nation’s gratitude.”
To learn more about the life and times for Bayard Rustin, please check out the award winning feature documentary film BROTHER OUTSIDER.
Storm Surge 