“Time on Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin”

Cover of "Time on Two Crosses: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin", via Bookshop.

Bayard Rustin was an openly gay, Black strategist, pacifist, and innovating civil rights activist. “Time on Two Crosses” is a collection of essays and photos that offer his perspective on the civil rights movement of his time.

Buy on Bookshop ($21) >

About Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin was a strategist, pacifist, and innovating civil rights activist. He brought Gandhi's protest techniques to the American civil rights movement and played a deeply influential role in the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., helping to mold him into an international symbol of nonviolence.

[W]e must remember that we cannot hope to achieve democracy and equality in such a way that would destroy the very kind of society which we hope to build. If we desire a society of peace, then we cannot achieve such a society through violence. If we desire a society without discrimination, then we must not discriminate against anyone in the process of building this society. If we desire a society that is democratic, then democracy must become a means as well as an end. If we desire a society in which men are brothers, then we must act towards one another with brotherhood. If we can build such a society, then we would have achieved the ultimate goal of human freedom.

Bayard Rustin, written to the children of Cleveland, Dec. 3, 1969, after a city leader had invited him to write a letter on “the magnificent times in which we live," via Huffington Post.

Bayard Rustin is best known as the organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, one of the largest nonviolent protests ever held in the United States. At this event, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the exalted “I Have a Dream” speech, considered one of the most influential speeches of the 20th century (NAACP). This event was considered instrumental in the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the National Voting Rights Act of 1965. Together, these laws outlawed discrimination against Black people and women – and sought to end disenfranchisement by making discriminatory voting practices illegal.

Cover of “Organizing Manual No. 2,” the document that Rustin and his team distributed from New York with logistics and organizing principles of the March on Washington. Read the full document on the Civil Rights Movement archives.

Rustin was also an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era, which brought him significant tension throughout his career. When he was young, he was arrested for being openly gay and forced to register as a sex offender. These charges added additional scrutiny on his role in the movement – from both the general public and other civil rights leaders (Brittanica).

In 1960, Adam Clayton Powell, the minister-congressman from Harlem, threatened to float a rumor that King was one of Rustin’s lovers if King didn’t exile him from his inner circle. King pushed him away, reluctantly, and Rustin resigned from King’s organization (Washington Post). To keep Rustin involved with the March on Washington without inciting more opposition, he was placed “under the leadership” of A. Philip Randolph so he wouldn’t be considered “in charge.” Despite that, three weeks before the March on Washington, South Carolina governor Strom Thurmond attempted to thwart the plan by insinuating Rustin and Martin Luther King, Jr. were in a homosexual relationship (PBS).

To Rustin, asserting his identity as African American went hand-in-hand with identifying as a gay man. "It occurred to me shortly after that that it was an absolute necessity for me to declare homosexuality because if I didn't I was a part of the prejudice," he said. "I was aiding and abetting the prejudice that was a part of the effort to destroy me” (Making Gay History).

Bayard Rustin, late 1940s. Credit: Photo courtesy of the Estate of Bayard Rustin, via Making Gay History.

Despite the violence and discrimination he faced throughout his lifetime, Rustin never shied away from who he was. He just continued to do his work while avoiding the spotlight. The FBI is said to have a 10,000-page file of Rustin’s participation in dozens of protest causes over his lifetime: segregation, Japanese internees, draft resisters, workers’ rights, chain-gang prisoners, the anti-nuclear movement, and the South African apartheid (Washington Post). Rustin would spend his life fighting for others' rights, even while facing discrimination of his own.

On November 20, 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Bayard Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom to honor his tireless work for equality. In January 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom pardoned Rustin’s arrest on “lewd conduct” and “vagrancy” charges – and announced a broader initiative to do the same for other LGBTQ+ leaders (CNN).

Apart from his career as an activist, Rustin was also fun-loving, mischievous, artistic, gifted with a fine singing voice, and known as an art collector who sometimes “found museum-quality pieces in New York City trash” (rustin.org). He was survived by his long-term partner, Walter Naegle, who he legally adopted late in life because, at the time, it was the only legal means of formalizing a same-sex relationship (NPR). Rustin’s New York Times obituary identifies his partner Walter Naegle as his “administrative assistant and adopted son” (NYTimes).

Bayard Rustin at age 71 in London’s Trafalgar Square, 1983. Photo by Walter Naegle courtesy of the Estate of Bayard Rustin, via Making Gay History.

Reflection Questions

• Reflect: How does discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community hinder our efforts for racial equity?
• Consider how "intersectionality", or the complexity of our identities based on race, class, gender, sexual identity, etc, influence how we see the world and define liberation.
• What other unsung heroes of the Civil Rights Movement, or other movements throughout time, may have been sidelined because of their identity?

Learn More

• LISTEN: Season 4, Episode 8 of the Making Gay History podcast on the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin (Making Gay History).
• READ: The Unapologetically Black, Queer, and Movement-Oriented Activism of Bayard Rustin by Ashia Ajani on them.
• WATCH: March on Washington, a short film produced by the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NAACP).
• WATCH: “Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin,” a documentary on the life of Bayard Rustin (Vimeo).
• WATCH: President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Bayard Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This award was accepted by his long-term partner, Walter Naegle. You can watch the ceremony here.