An ongoing illustrative history study
This piece originally posted 6/12/2020
"When an individual is protesting society's refusal to acknowledge his dignity as a human being, his very act of protest confers dignity on him."
Bayard Rustin is almost certainly someone who falls in the "I've never heard of" category, which is all the more execrable given his role in the civil rights movement. A strict believer in Dr. King's brand of nonviolent activism, Rustin also faced the additional difficulties inherent to being an openly gay man in the 1950's (yes, the mere act of BEING such was an arrestable offense in those days --and yes, it DID happen to him). Partly for that stigma Rustin was less of a public figure than many of his contemporaries, playing more of a "behind-the-scenes" advisory role. Rustin was one of the key influencers in getting the AFL-CIO to adopt an integrative stance, rather than its previous policy on all-white unions.
President Barack Obama posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rustin in 2013. Go do some intelligent searching on his name, in conjuction with terms like "Congress of Racial Equality" and "1963 March on Washington" (yeah, he wasn't merely THERE, he was its principal ORGANIZER). I'd also recommend a very illuminating short video narrated by his partner Walter Naegle, about Rustin's largely-unsung role; very easily findable on YouTube.
Next page - Lesson 6: Katherine Johnson