Gay black civil rights leader martin luther king jr

BR: Oh, certainly. At a given point, there was so much pressure on Dr. King about my being gay and particularly because I would not deny it, that he set up a committee to explore whether it would be dangerous for me to continue working with him. And after eight years that committee came to the decision it would be dangerous.

Bayard Rustin: A Gay Man in the Civil Rights Movement.

Assuming that we would both live out our natural lifespans, he was going to die before I was. He wanted to be in a position where I would be able to make decisions for him if he was hospitalized or suffering from dementia. Bayard also wanted me to be able to inherit his estate — not just property, but also intellectual property rights.

5 black LGBTQ activists that shaped the civil rights movement

Her public work focused on Black liberation and her private writings discussed her queerness. Bayard Rustin was a once-unsung hero of the Civil Rights Movement who has finally started to receive his flowers in recent years. He was one of Dr. James Baldwin was an author and civil rights activist who was friends with Dr.

Bayard Rustin

Last Updated: May 28, On the morning of August 28, , Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. While King spoke as the face of the civil rights movement , another man stood behind the scenes, an indispensable force within the movement. He was Bayard Rustin, a man whose life was shaped by the very prejudices the movement fought against, not only because of his race, but also because he was gay.