
A groundbreaking digital archive honoring Bayard Rustin — the Civil Rights Movement’s unsung architect and a key figure with deep ties to Pasadena — is set to launch this fall, offering an expansive look at his legacy as a queer Black leader and strategist.
The Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice will debut an online archive featuring rare videos, photos, articles, telegrams, and speeches chronicling Rustin’s life and activism. The archive will gather material from institutions and museums while inviting the public to contribute personal stories and artifacts.
Rustin, a pacifist and pioneering organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, is widely credited with mentoring Martin Luther King Jr. and shaping the nonviolent philosophy of the movement. Yet, for decades, his name was left out of textbooks — largely due to his sexuality and a pivotal 1953 arrest on Raymond Avenue.
Arrested on charges of vagrancy and lewd conduct — charges historically used to target LGBTQ+ individuals — Rustin served 50 days in jail and was beaten by police. In 2020, then-Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a posthumous pardon, calling the conviction “a stain on our history.”
“Bayard Rustin was a key architect of the civil rights movement in the 20th Century, but for many years his accomplishments were largely ignored because of his sexuality,” said Councilmember Jason Lyon, who brought forth a resolution supporting a postage stamp honoring Rustin in 2023.
Rustin’s organizational genius helped move the civil rights agenda forward. He was the chief organizer of the March on Washington, coordinated the Montgomery bus boycott, and forged alliances across movements and communities — all while being forced into the background because of his identity.
Raised by grandparents in Pennsylvania who emphasized nonviolence and education, Rustin was deeply influenced by NAACP leaders like W.E.B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson. Expelled from Wilberforce University in 1936 for organizing a protest, he later moved to New York during the Harlem Renaissance.
In 2023, Netflix’s “Rustin” brought his story to a wider audience.