Latest news with #Negro
Newsweek
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Best Baseball Museum
Babe Ruth Birthplace Museum Baltimore, MD Photo courtesy of Sean Pavone/iStock by Getty Images Photo courtesy of Sean Pavone/iStock by Getty Images George Herman Ruth—better known as Babe Ruth—began his life in a humble brick building in downtown Baltimore and would go on to become a baseball icon. Today, visitors can tour this very row house and see one-of-a-kind artifacts from throughout Ruth's career, including uniforms, balls and mitts once used by the Bambino. The upstairs bedroom where Ruth was born is even set up as it would have been in 1895. Baseball Heritage Museum Cleveland, OH Photo courtesy of Baseball Heritage Museum Photo courtesy of Baseball Heritage Museum Housed in the former ticket office of Cleveland's Historic League Park, this museum celebrates the trailblazers and contributions from the Latin, Carribbean, Negro and women's leagues that shaped baseball as we know it today. See game-worn jerseys and beautifully restored photograhs of legendary teams and players such as Satchel Paige and Larry Doby. The mini replica of League Park is a crowd favorite. Biggest Little Baseball Museum Three Oaks, MI Photo courtesy of Gerville/iStock by Getty Images Photo courtesy of Gerville/iStock by Getty Images Dubbed 'so big you can't see it all in one visit, and so little you can't get lost," the Biggest Little Baseball Museum showcases baseball history with a distinctly midwestern flair. Whether it's the player-endorsed kid's gloves or the exhibit on the House of David barnstorming team, the unique artifacts in the upstairs of Three Oaks' library offer something new for even the most knowlegable baseball fans. Chicago Sports Museum Chicago, IL Photo courtesy of Chicago Sports Museum Photo courtesy of Chicago Sports Museum The Chicago Sports Museum puts the spotlight on all major Windy City sports teams, including the Cubs. But fans of any team can appreciate the interactive exhibits that allow them to pitch with Cy Young and hit dingers with Frank Thomas. More into sports science? Stop by the Forensic Sports display to see a CT scan of Sammy Sosa's famous corked bat and a cross section of a baseball. Clemente Museum Pittsburgh, PA Photo courtesy of jonathansloane/iStock by Getty Images Photo courtesy of jonathansloane/iStock by Getty Images Although Roberto Clemente was a legendary baseball player, he's just as famous for his humanitarian efforts. The Clemente Museum in Pittsburgh honors both aspects of his legacy. During your guided tour, you can see thousands of items with ties to The Great One, from photos and uniforms to trophies and seats from Forbes Field. Visits are by appointment only, so be sure to call ahead. Jackie Robinson Museum New York, NY Photo courtesy of DCrane08/iStock by Getty Images Photo courtesy of DCrane08/iStock by Getty Images Located in Lower Manhattan, the Jackie Robinson Museum tells the incredible story of this baseball icon, from his early life and military service to his breaking of the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers and beyond. The exhibits also showcase Robinson's impact, both during his lifetime and today, with fan letters from his playing days and audio recordings from modern-day admirers. Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory Louisville, KY Photo courtesy of Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory Photo courtesy of Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory Easily distinguished by the 120-foot bat in front of the building, the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory is a home run for baseball fans of every age. The museum gallery houses impressive exhibits, including one that allows guests to hold bats used by modern and historic baseball figures like Derek Jeter and Babe Ruth. For a closer look at how today's bats are made, be sure to add a factory tour to your visit. National Ballpark Museum Denver, CO Photo courtesy of milehightraveler/iStock by Getty Images Photo courtesy of milehightraveler/iStock by Getty Images The National Ballpark Museum of Lower Downtown Denver is the only museum dedicated to baseball stadiums and wouldn't exist if not for the lifelong love of the game held by its founder. The artifacts began as a personal collection, which has slowly grown to include pieces from 14 classic ballparks. There are also exhibits with local flair featuring Colorado Rockies and Denver Bears memorabilia. Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Kansas City, MO Photo courtesy of Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Photo courtesy of Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Both awe-inspiring and informative, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum showcases the men and women trailblazers of African-American baseball. Visit the Field of Legends to see life-size statues of 13 Negro League players who have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, then check out the 400 baseballs signed by Negro League players donated to the museum by Rush frontman, Geddy Lee. Negro Southern League Museum Birmingham, AL Photo courtesy of jonathansloane/iStock by Getty Images Photo courtesy of jonathansloane/iStock by Getty Images The Negro Southern League Museum invites you to immerse yourself in the rich history of African-American baseball in Alabama and its impact on the Civil Rights Movement. See game-worn jerseys from developmental teams like the Birmingham Black Barons and touch the wall of 1,500 autographed baseballs. Ready to see history come to life? You can stand face to face with a moving hologram of hurler Satchel Paige. Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum Greenville, SC Photo courtesy of DCrane08/iStock by Getty Images Photo courtesy of DCrane08/iStock by Getty Images Take a step back in time when you visit the Shoeless Joe Jackson Museum, which is housed within Jackson's former home in Greenville, SC. Each room is filled with artifacts chronicling Jackson's life, from his childhood in a mill village to becoming one of baseball's greatest natural hitters (and yes, the 1919 Black Sox scandal). A block away, you can find a life-size bronze statue of Jackson. Tampa Baseball Museum Tampa, FL Photo courtesy of benedek/iStock by Getty Images Photo courtesy of benedek/iStock by Getty Images Learn about how baseball became the "universal language" of Tampa at the Tampa Baseball Museum! Located inside the childhood casita of Al Lopez in the historic Ybor City neighborhood, this museum shares Tampa's impact on the sport throughout the years. It's an especially popular destination for kids, who often get the chance to hear first-hand accounts from visiting former players and meet local minor league mascots. The World of Little League® Museum South Williamsport, PA Photo courtesy of The World of Little League® Museum Photo courtesy of The World of Little League® Museum Whether you played ball as a child, have a future major leaguer of your own or are simply a fan of the game, you'll find something to love at the World of Little League Museum. See the story of this world-famous program come to life through exhibits filled with vintage uniforms and gear as well as high-tech interactive displays. Don't forget to stop by the gift shop for some Little League swag! Ty Cobb Museum Royston, GA Photo courtesy of eurobanks/iStock by Getty Images Photo courtesy of eurobanks/iStock by Getty Images This museum offers a unique glimpse into the early days of baseball and the life of Ty Cobb, the first player inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Located within a former hospital (built thanks to a donation from the Georgia Peach), the Ty Cobb museum has its own theater where visitors can hear the story of Cobb's rise to legendary status. You'll also find exhibits with baseball memorabilia from the early 1900s. Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center Little Falls, NJ Photo courtesy of DCrane08/iStock by Getty Images Photo courtesy of DCrane08/iStock by Getty Images The Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center doesn't just cover baseball history, it explores baseball science! After viewing the permanent exhibit documenting Berra's early days and historic career (including two of his 13 World Series rings), head to the pitching simulator and see how your fastball measures up. You'll also find a variety of rotating exhibits on everything from the Negro Leagues to the MLB's COVID season.
Budapest Times
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Budapest Times
Dumb hoods screw up in kidnap gone wrong
Latter-day editions of books by late American crime writer Charles Willeford (1919-1988) have featured the front-cover accolade by late American crime writer Elmore Leonard (1925-2013) that 'No one writes a better crime novel than Charles Willeford'. That's exceedingly generous praise from a man for whom many would offer exactly the same sentiment, that 'No one writes a better crime novel than Elmore Leonard'. While not wanting to enter a debate about who might have been the better of the two, it has to be said that Leonard's output of some 45 novels outstrips Willeford's of 18 or so, with both maintaining a remarkably high standard of idiosyncratic plotting, characterisation and dialogue in a felonious field that includes many other notable penmen and penwomen. (Leonard and Willeford have been great favourites at The Budapest Times for years, where we've consumed some 35 of Leonard's novels and just about all of Willeford's, but forced by threat of torture into a decision of some sort, rather than choosing one author we would at least opt for the latter's superlative 'Sideswipe' (1987) as nigh on unbeatable.) Well, just about matchless, that is, for 'The Switch', first published in 1978. is top-notch story-telling too, with its requisite badasses who are basically too stupid to be successful badasses. The badasses here are Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara, Ordell a light-skinned Negro and Gara a dark-skinned Caucasian, so they are about even in shade (a typical Leonard touch, that). Not only are Leonard's hoods often dumb and screwing up, they can end up trying to rip off each other too, with guess-what results. Louis is going to be the dumb-ass here. Leonard liked to write things in a bit of an oblique way, so when he tells us that 'Louis had been down in Huntsville, Texas, keeping fit, clearing scrub all day, having his supper at five P.M. and turning the light out at ten', that's Elmore code for Louis having been in jail. Likewise, reading that 'Louis wore a cap – this summer a faded tan cap – straight and low over his eyes. Louis didn't go in for jewelry; a watch was enough, a $1,200 Benrus he'd picked up at the Flamingo Motor Hotel, McAllen, Texas', well, that's another roundabout for the reader to understand – he's a thief. He has indeed been away for nearly three years, and so now that he's out of stir and back in Detroit, his pal Ordell is taking him for a ride in Ordell's tan Ford van so that he can see the latest sights of the Motor Capital. As they cruise past the monumental Renaissance Centre on the riverfront, all glass and steel rising 700 feet in a five-tower complex, all Louis can say is that, 'Wow. It's big'. Ordell is nonplussed, asking, 'That's all you can say? It's big?' to which Louis adds: 'It's really big. If it fell over you could walk across it to Canada.' Another sight described by Ordell: '… a fine example of neo-ghetto… You can see it's not your classic ghetto yet, not quite ratty or rotten enough, but it's coming. Over there on the left, first whore of the day. Out for her vitamin C. And there's some more – hot pants with a little ass hanging out, showing the goods.' Louis was jailed after gunning his car at someone he didn't like to make him jump but cut it too close and broke the man's legs. 'I was arrested, charged with attempted murder, plea-bargained it down to felonious assault and got two to five in Huntsville. Served thirty months, same amount of time I was in the Navy, and I'll tell you something. Even being at [naval station] Norfolk, Virginia, I liked the Navy a little better.' Leonard is a master of casual humour. Ordell recounts how he went down to the Bahamas about seven, eight years ago. 'I had some money to spend, I said hey, go down to a paradise island and have some of those big rum drinks and watch the natives do all that quaint shit beating on the oil drums, you know?' And then there's Richard, full name Richard Edgar Monk, a cultist, racist, anti-communist, anti-semite, ex-private security guard with an arsenal of rifles, revolvers, a musket, shotguns – one sawed-off – grenades, bayonets, knives, a gas mask, a German helmet, an Afrika Korps soft hat, Nazi armbands, belt buckles, an SS death's head insignia, and boxes of cartridges and shotgun shells. His car has a shotgun mount, roll-bar and police siren. Richard is recruited because Ordell and Louis plan to kidnap the wife of a rich man and they need Richard's house to hold her until her husband pays a million-dollar ransom. Alongside Richard's World War Two memorabilia, the red, white and black swastika on the wall and photos of Hitler and Heinrich Himmler in his black SS uniform, Leonard notes in another nice touch that the couch and easychairs have crocheted antimacassars on the arms and headrests. There's something weird about Richard. The kidnap victim will be Mickey Dawson, the 'tennis mum' of a spoiled brat teenage son, Bo. She's sick to the teeth of her husband Frank. 'He's a pure asshole,' she says. For the irritable Frank, nothing his wife does is right and he's on her back all the time. Unknown to her, he has apartments in Detroit renovated with stolen materials and appliances, renting to pimps and prostitutes, grossing at least $100,000 a month but reporting only half as income, his money going into a numbered bank account. Frank also regularly goes to the Bahamas for a day or two, lately for several days, supposedly working on land development with foreign investors. He has a mistress there, Melanie. Ordell and Louis have a selection of rubber faces including four Richard Nixons, Frankenstein, a vampire, a witch, monsters, Micky Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy for disguise. They grab Mickey and take her to Richard's. It has all the makings of a terrible mess, Elmore Leonard-style – the two hoods and their psycho pal, and the Frank-Mickey-Melanie triangle. Unfortunately, unknown to the kidnappers, Frank has divorce papers in the pipeline and he wants to marry Melanie, so why should he want to pay out a million dollars to secure Mickey's release? In fact it would save him a lot of trouble if the kidnappers kill her. There's an interesting question that Leonard might be subtly leaving us to consider – are Ordell, Louis and Richard any more screwed up in their criminal ways than the 'respectable' Frank? The outcome is unseen and nicely absurd, a satisfying ending to an enjoyable book . The other two newly resissued Leonard paperbacks alongside 'The Switch' are 'Swag' (1976) and 'Rum Punch' (1992). Another 10 will follow at the end of this year and in March 2026. It's all about keeping the catalogue alive. These latest paperbacks don't mean that Elmore Leonard is back, because he never went away, and probably won't either. A couple of his tenets for good writing to keep the reader engaged were to never use a verb other than 'said' to carry dialogue, and to never use an adverb to modify the verb 'said' to keep the focus on the dialogue itself. For these and his other rules we remark that we are exceedingly grateful.
Toronto Sun
09-07-2025
- General
- Toronto Sun
Lorne Gunter: 'Half history is wrong': Park Canada plaques deemed problematic
Most Canadians wouldn't support American historic sites that used the world 'Negro,' or worse. A symbolic place on the Canadian landscape, and in the Canadian imagination, Craigellachie, British Columbia, is where on Nov. 7, 1885, the Last Spike was driven in the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway across Canada. Photo by Lane MacIntosh / supplied Since 2019, at the height of the Trudeau government's woke, virtue-signalling remake of Canadian history, it has been official federal policy to portray our national history through the lenses of 'colonialism, patriarchy and racism,' especially at Parks Canada sites. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account This week, the online news site, Blacklock's Reporter, exposed two examples of such revisionism. And the surprise is, Parks Canada is likely the good guys in one example. In the six years since the Trudeau cabinet gave federal curators, archivists and historians the task of 'correcting' Canadian history, Parks Canada committees and employees have examined nearly 2,200 commemorative plaques and displays across the country. Almost one-third have been deemed problematic. Two hundred have been declared out-and-out offensive and in need of immediate replacement or removal. The biggest reason a display or inscription is red-flagged is 'ignoring Indigenous contributions or using antiquated language, such as 'Indian' or 'Eskimo.'' Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. That seems fair enough. Most Canadians wouldn't support American historic sites that used the world 'Negro,' or worse. If 'Indigenous,' 'First Nation' or 'Inuit' are now considered more correct, old plaques should be changed to incorporate newer language. Just be warned, the art of labelling is a moving target. Get ready every few decades to incorporate what are the acceptable words or names at the time. The examples uncovered by Blacklock's are telling. The one in which the Historic Sites and Monuments Board gets it wrong has to do with the Northwest Mounted Police. Instead of being the heroes of Canada's westward expansion, they are now to be portrayed in government documents and museums as paramilitary colonialists insensitive to Indigenous cultures. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Really!? Would the federal government rather Canada suffered the American Indian Wars in which European settlement was achieved with the brutal suppression of Indigenous peoples? Because that is what the NWMP prevented. The original Mounties were formed in 1873 to prevent American annexation of the Prairie West, to control settler violence against First Nations (and vice versa) and to end the devastating impact the American whiskey trade was having on the Indigenous peoples of the Prairies. It's a testament to the even-handedness of the NWMP that, after the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana in 1876, the Sioux under Sitting Bull sought (and received) the protection of the Mounties for nearly four years until our federal government pressured them to return to the U.S. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Did the NWMP enforce discriminatory and oppressive laws before their disbandment in 1920. Undoubtedly. But wiping out historical recognition because it is one-sided does not correct the facts, it merely replaces them with another equally one-sided version. Parks Canada's new version of the NWMP is as incorrect — or more so — than the old version that ignores First Nations. Parks Canada's new boss, Liberal Steven Guilbeault, seems as determined to use cultural extremism to do for Canada's history what he did for our economy through environmental extremism. Another historical 'correction' being proposed by Parks Canada seems more reasonable, but is still being resisted by lobby groups and activists. At the site of the 'last spike' on the Canadian Pacific Railway, driven in 1885 between Revelstoke and Sicamous, B.C., the federal historic committee wants to add to the plaque commemorating the engineering achievement that united the country this wording: 'Many workers died building the line including Chinese labourers who played a major role in the construction of the line…' That should be acceptable; it's true. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. But activists have threatened to protest any revision at the site that does not highlight 'systemic' discrimination against non-Whites. Using the Trudeau government's 2019 policy as a guideline, federal archivists have removed or altered 7,000 pages from government websites, many having to do with historic figures, such as Sir. John A. Macdonald whose views now are deemed politically incorrect. But half-history is wrong, even if it is meant to correct the faults of past historical telling. lgunter@ Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don't miss the news you need to know — add and to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters . You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun Toronto & GTA Olympics Columnists Toronto Maple Leafs Basketball
Los Angeles Times
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
A Bayard Rustin archive aims to preserve his legacy as a queer Civil Rights activist
NEW YORK — Social justice advocates are creating a queer history archive that celebrates Bayard Rustin, a major organizer in the Civil Rights Movement and key architect of the March on Washington. The Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice will launch a digital archive this fall featuring articles, photos, videos, telegrams, speeches and more tied to Rustin's work. Sourced from museums, archives and personal accounts, it's designed as a central space where others can add their own stories, creating a living historical record. 'There's this hole in our history,' said Robt Martin Seda-Schreiber, the center's founder and chief activist. 'And there are great resources about Bayard, but they're all spread out, and none of it has been collected and put together in the way that he deserves, and more importantly, the way the world deserves to see him.' Rare footage of Rustin speaking at a 1964 New York rally for voting rights marchers who were beaten in Selma, Ala., was recently uncovered and digitized by Associated Press archivists. Other AP footage shows him addressing a crowd during a 1967 New York City teachers' strike. 'We are here to tell President Johnson that the Black people, the trade union movement, white people of goodwill and the church people — Negroes first — put him where he is,' Rustin states at the 1964 rally. 'We will stay in these damn streets until every Negro in the country can vote!' The legacy of Rustin — who died in 1987 aged 75 — reaches far beyond the estimated 250,000 people he rallied to attend the March on Washington in 1963, when Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his 'I Have A Dream' speech. Rustin also played a pivotal role behind the scenes, mentoring King and orchestrating the Montgomery bus boycott. And his influence still guides activism today, reminding younger generations of the power the community holds in driving lasting change through nonviolence, said David J. Johns, a queer Black leader based in Washington, D.C. 'Being an architect of not just that moment but of the movement, has enabled so many of us to continue to do things that are a direct result of his teaching and sacrifice,' said Johns. He is the chief executive and executive director of the National Black Justice Collective, which attributes its advocacy successes in the Black queer space to Rustin's legacy. Rustin was born into activism, according to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. His grandparents, Julia Davis and Janifer Rustin, instilled in him and his 11 siblings the value of nonviolence. His grandmother was a member of the NAACP, so Rustin was surrounded and influenced by leaders including the activist and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson, who wrote 'Lift Every Voice and Sing.' Rustin was expelled from Wilberforce University in 1936 after he organized a strike against racial injustice. He later studied at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, the nation's first historically Black college, then moved to New York during the Harlem Renaissance to engage more deeply with political and social activism. He attended the City College of New York and joined the Young Communist League for its stance against segregation. Rustin was arrested 23 times, including a 1953 conviction in Pasadena, for vagrancy and lewd conduct — charges commonly used then to criminalize LGBTQ+ people. He served 50 days in jail and lost a tooth after being beaten by police. California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a posthumous pardon in 2020, acknowledging Rustin had been subjected to discrimination. Rustin and figures such as Marsha P. Johnson, a prominent transgender activist during the gay rights movement, continue inspire the LGBTQ+ community because they 'were super intentional and unapologetic in the ways in which they showed up,' Johns said. 'I often think about Bayard and the March on Washington, which he built in record time and in the face of a whole lot of opposition,' Johns said. Walter Naegle, Rustin's partner and a consultant on projects related to his life and work, said it's important for the queer community to have access to the history of social movements. 'There wasn't very much of an LGBTQ+ movement until the early 50s,' said Naegle. 'The African American struggle was a blueprint for what they needed to do and how they needed to organize. And so to have access to all of the Civil Rights history, and especially to Bayard's work — because he was really the preeminent organizer — I think it's very important for the current movements to have the ability to go back and look at that material.' Rustin's sexuality and his former association with the Young Communist League forced him to step away as a Civil Rights leader for several years. In 1960, New York congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. threatened to spread false rumors that Rustin and King were intimately involved, weaponizing widespread homophobia to undermine their cause, according to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. But Rustin resumed his work in 1963 as chief organizer of the March on Washington, which became a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement and paved the way for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 2023, Netflix released the biopic 'Rustin.' Filmmaker and co-writer Julian Breece, who is Black and queer, grew up in the '90s when, he said, being gay still correlated with the spread of AIDS, leading to shame and isolation. But he learned about Rustin's impact on the Civil Rights Movement and found a peer to admire. 'Seeing a picture of Rustin with King, who is the opposite of all those things, it let me know there was a degree to which I was being lied to and that there was more for me potentially, if Bayard Rustin could have that kind of impact,' Breece said. 'I wanted Black gay men to have a hero they could look up to,' he said. Green writes for the Associated Press.
NBC News
08-07-2025
- Politics
- NBC News
A Bayard Rustin archive aims to preserve his legacy as a queer Civil Rights activist
Social justice advocates are creating a queer history archive that celebrates Bayard Rustin, a major organizer in the Civil Rights Movement and key architect of the March on Washington. The Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice will launch a digital archive this fall featuring articles, photos, videos, telegrams, speeches, and more tied to Rustin's work. Sourced from museums, archives, and personal accounts, it's designed as a central space where others can add their own stories, creating a living historical record. "There's this hole in our history," said Robt Martin Seda-Schreiber, the center's founder and chief activist. "And there are great resources about Bayard, but they're all spread out, and none of it has been collected and put together in the way that he deserves, and more importantly, the way the world deserves to see him." Rare footage of Rustin speaking at a 1964 New York rally for voting rights marchers who were beaten in Selma, Alabama, was recently uncovered and digitized by Associated Press archivists. Other AP footage shows him addressing a crowd during a 1967 New York City teachers strike. "We are here to tell President Johnson that the Black people, the trade union movement, white people of goodwill and the church people — Negroes first — put him where he is," Rustin states at the 1964 rally. "We will stay in these damn streets until every Negro in the country can vote!" Rustin mentored the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The legacy of Rustin — who died in 1987 aged 75 — reaches far beyond the estimated 250,000 people he rallied to attend the March on Washington in 1963, when the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech. Rustin also played a pivotal role behind the scenes, mentoring King and orchestrating the Montgomery bus boycott. And his influence still guides activism today, reminding younger generations of the power the community holds in driving lasting change through nonviolence, said David J. Johns, a queer Black leader based in Washington, D.C. "Being an architect of not just that moment but of the movement, has enabled so many of us to continue to do things that are a direct result of his teaching and sacrifice," said Johns. He is the CEO and executive director of the National Black Justice Collective, which attributes its advocacy successes in the Black queer space to Rustin's legacy. Rustin was born into activism, according to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research & Education Institute. His grandparents, Julia Davis and Janifer Rustin, instilled in him and his 11 siblings the value of nonviolence. His grandmother was a member of the NAACP, so Rustin was surrounded and influenced by leaders including the activist and scholar W.E.B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson, who wrote "Lift Every Voice and Sing." Rustin was expelled from Wilberforce University in 1936 after he organized a strike against racial injustice. He later studied at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, the nation's first historically Black college, then moved to New York during the Harlem Renaissance to engage more deeply with political and social activism. He attended the City College of New York and joined the Young Communist League for its stance against segregation. Rustin served jail time and was posthumously pardoned Rustin was arrested 23 times, including a 1953 conviction in Pasadena, California, for vagrancy and lewd conduct — charges commonly used then to criminalize LGBTQ+ people. He served 50 days in jail and lost a tooth after being beaten by police. California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a posthumous pardon in 2020, acknowledging Rustin had been subjected to discrimination. Rustin and figures such as Marsha P. Johnson, a prominent transgender activist during the gay rights movement, continue inspire the LGBTQ+ community because they "were super intentional and unapologetic in the ways in which they showed up," Johns said. "I often think about Bayard and the March on Washington, which he built in record time and in the face of a whole lot of opposition," Johns said. Walter Naegle, Rustin's partner and a consultant on projects related to his life and work, said it's important for the queer community to have access to the history of social movements. "There wasn't very much of an LGBTQ+ movement until the early 50s," said Naegle. "The African American struggle was a blueprint for what they needed to do and how they needed to organize. And so to have access to all of the Civil Rights history, and especially to Bayard's work — because he was really the preeminent organizer — I think it's very important for the current movements to have the ability to go back and look at that material." Rustin had to step away from leadership for several years Rustin's sexuality and his former association with the Young Communist League forced him to step away as a Civil Rights leader for several years. In 1960, New York congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr. threatened to spread false rumors that Rustin and King were intimately involved, weaponizing widespread homophobia to undermine their cause, according to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. But Rustin resumed his work in 1963 as chief organizer of the March on Washington, which became a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement and paved the way for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In 2023, Netflix released the biopic, " Rustin. " Filmmaker and co-writer Julian Breece, who is Black and queer grew up in the '90s when, he said, being gay still correlated with the spread of AIDS, leading to shame and isolation. But he learned about Rustin's impact on the Civil Rights Movement and found a peer to admire. "Seeing a picture of Rustin with King, who is the opposite of all those things, it let me know there was a degree to which I was being lied to and that there was more for me potentially, if Bayard Rustin could have that kind of impact," Breece said.
