Bayard Rustin (March 17, 1912 - August 24, 1987) was an American civil rights activist, important largely behind the scenes in the civil rights movement of the 1960s and earlier, and principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. He counseled Martin Luther King, Jr. on the techniques of nonviolent resistance. Rustin was an advocate on behalf of gay and lesbian causes in the latter part of his career; however his sexual orientation was a platform used by many governmental as well as idealists groups to attack him.
