Ashley Hair

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

3-2025

Abstract

Bayard Rustin existed at a time when being Black and being gay made him out to be as un-American as you could get. Rustin’s work behind the scenes of the civil rights movement and his lasting impact frequently go undocumented and without praise. His identity as a Black gay man excluded him from many avenues of life and simultaneously allowed him experiences all his own. Research on Bayard Rustin and his intersecting identities is a relatively new field. With its emergence, scholars have discovered that his identity as a gay man, and a proud one, frequently interfered with his ability to be active in the civil rights movement. This struggle was not created by himself but rather by those who were around him. Following the shift in the field of history and its inclusivity, Rustin’s life and legacy have slowly been coming to light. His involvement in the civil rights movement has long been hidden and swept under the rug, and it is only in recent years that his true impact and legacy have begun to be thoroughly cited and analyzed. Rustin’s experiences are a prime example of the treatment of queer people, especially Black and other nonwhite queer people, in history. His identity as a gay man caused him to be excluded and mistreated within the civil rights movement and in society as a whole.

Comments

Honorable Mention, Spring 2025 DLC Library Research Prize cycle.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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