A new digital archive honoring Bayard Rustin is set to launch this fall, according to the Associated Press.
The Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice has announced the creation of an archive featuring the most influential yet often overlooked leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.
The upcoming archive will display many of Rustin’s personal and professional materials. These include speeches, photographs, newspaper clippings, and videos. Items were sourced from multiple establishments, such as the Library of Congress, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and other public and private collections.
Leadership at the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice aims to make Rustin’s work and life accessible to a wider audience while encouraging community members to contribute their own stories and memories related to Rustin’s legacy.
“This is not just a digital museum,” said Robt Seda-Schreiber, chief activist at the Bayard Rustin Center. “It’s a living, breathing tribute to Bayard and to all who continue his fight for justice.”
Rustin, an openly gay Black man and chief architect of the 1963 March on Washington, played a pivotal role in shaping nonviolent protest strategies that defined the movement. Despite his major contributions, his sexual orientation often led to his being sidelined in historical narratives.
Rustin endured numerous arrests, including a 1953 conviction in California on “lewd conduct” charges. The lewd conduct charge was often used to criminalize LGBTQ+ individuals. This conviction, which cost him 50 days in jail and physical assault by police, cast a long shadow over his career, leading to public distancing by some civil rights leaders. Only in his latter years was Rustin’s contribution fully acknowledged.
The civil rights legend was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously by President Barack Obama in 2013. As much of Rustin’s work has been overshadowed by more vocal members of the movement, the archive allows others to examine his contribution.
The archive is expected to go live ahead of the November release of Rustin, the Netflix biopic starring Colman Domingo.
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