After yesterday’s celebrations in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., tonight, the spotlight will shift to a man whose contributions to the Civil Rights Movement are lesser known.
Bayard Rustin, who was a close counselor to King, will be recognized in the Fagin Hall auditorium at 4 p.m.
Rustin advised King regarding non-violent approaches to civil rights. He also served as a principal organizer of the March On Washington, where King gave his now-famous “I Have a Dream” speech, according to a School of Social Policy and Practice press release.
The Association of Black Social Workers, the School of Social Policy and Practice and Queer Social Workers and Allies at Penn will host the event titled “Bayard Rustin: The most important man you never heard of and why he matters now.”
Bayard Rustin was “critical to the Civil Rights Movement,” SP2 Assistant Professor Damon Freeman wrote in an e-mail.
“Rustin not only provided big ideas, but he also provided much-needed administrative skills in organizing demonstrations, rallies, and logistical support to a nationwide network of people,” Freeman wrote.
However, Rustin’s political opponents used his open homosexuality against him, which resulted in a decreased awareness of his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.
The FBI felt that the movement posed a threat to national security, so they used Rustin’s homosexuality against him to “sow seeds of division,” Freeman explained.
“This event is aimed at educating people to increase awareness of the continued oppression and lack of civil rights for LGBT Americans,” event organizer and SP2 Ph.D. candidate Julie Tennille wrote in an e-mail.
“Today should be a day when a ‘Bayard Rustin’ could be visible and achieve hero status,” she added.
At the event, a documentary titled Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin will be screened. A short clip of comedian Wanda Sykes’ stand-up routine entitled Coming Out Black will follow the screening.
After both showings, a panel will comment on the documentary and apply their area of expertise to the issue, Tennille wrote.
The panel will include Freeman, SP2 Assistant Professor Toorjo Ghose, Associate Professor of English Heather Love and Jesse Salazar, a former advisor regarding LGBT concerns to the Obama campaign.
King “was a champion of freedom and equality for humankind and, while it is difficult to say what he would have opined about LGBT persons’ rights to marry, he was high-minded and understood well the value of having an advisor such as Bayard Rustin,” Tennille wrote.
“I imagine that he would not want any marginalized group to ‘wait’ for fundamental civil rights.”
The event will be followed by a reception hosted by Penn’s Office of Alumni Relations and the Penn Alumni Club of Philadelphia.
