Its nice to be living in an era when a person who is black, gay, and pacifist with a life like Bayard Rustins can receive such an award. More than anyone else I can think of, Bayard Rustin fits the description of a Pennsylvania progressive hero. Perhaps like many of you, when I encounter people that think political participation doesnt matter, one of the easiest examples I jump to to disprove that belief is the 1960?s civil rights movement and the real-life impact it had on our society. Bayard Rustin is an unsung hero of that movement, but much, much more. He was a lifelong activist that tried to push FDR to the left and was openly gay decades before he mentored Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He died a year before I was born, so I send you a belated RIP from the realm of the as-yet-living, Mr. Rustin, and I hope that reading your story will inspire others to keep up the fight as much as it has inspired me. Special thanks to Amy Goodman and everyone else at Democracy Now! for recognizing the story of Bayard Rustin as the major story it is and enlightening me and hopefully you with it.
http://www.keystonepolitics.com/2013/08/bayard-rustin-pa-native-unsung-hero-of-the-1963-march-on-washington-lifelong-activist/
Thanks for sharing it here Cha!
BOG