Read an Excerpt "Who is Bayard Rustin?" I have been asked this
question enough times to know that "Bayard Rustin" is not a
household name in America. Rustin was not a president, not a
four-star general, not a celebrity. He did not die young under
tragic circumstances, as did Martin Luther King, Jr., and
Malcolm X, two more renowned African Americans whom we do
remember. Instead, depending on the circumstances, Rustin was
dismissed during his lifetime as a Communist, a draft dodger, or
a sexual pervert -- and sometimes all three. None are
characteristics designed to win a revered place in our nation's
history. Less than two decades after Rustin's death, his
enormous contributions to American life -- in the struggle for
racial equality, a peaceful international order, and a
democratic economic system -- have been covered over, his name
mostly forgotten, his contribution to a world worth living in
largely obscured. Except for the briefest walk-on part as the
man-behind-the-scenes of the historic 1963 March on Wa