The Architect in the Shadows: Bayard Rustin 1912–1987
Obscure Lives Podcast by Savant
Episode notes
On August 28, 1963, a quarter-million people marched on Washington—an event that changed the course of civil rights legislation—yet the man who made it happen remained largely invisible. Bayard Rustin, the openly gay, pacifist, ex-Communist organizer whose logistical brilliance delivered the March on Washington, spent decades in the shadows because of who he was. This episode recovers his story and the price he paid for building a movement that could not publicly embrace him.