Editing Bayard Rustin (section)

==Influence on the civil rights movement==
{{Further|Civil Rights Movement}}
In 1947, Rustin and Houser organized the [[Journey of Reconciliation]]. This was the first of the [[Freedom Rides]] to test the 1946 [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] ruling in ''[[Irene Morgan#Arrest.2C jail and conviction|Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia]]'' banning [[racial discrimination]] in interstate travel as unconstitutional. Rustin and CORE executive secretary George Houser recruited a team of fourteen men, divided equally by race, to ride in pairs through Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky.<ref>Podair 2009, pp. 27.</ref> The NAACP opposed CORE's [[Gandhism|Gandhian]] tactics as too meek. Participants in the Journey of Reconciliation were arrested several times. Arrested with [[Igal Roodenko]] and [[Joe Felmet]], Rustin served twenty-two days on a [[chain gang]] in [[North Carolina]] for violating state [[Jim Crow]] laws regarding segregated seating on public transportation.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=[[The Crisis]] |date=September 1947 |title=Not So Deep Are the Roots |last=Peck |first=James |author-link=James Peck (pacifist)}} reprinted in {{cite book|last1=Carson|first1=Clayborne|last2=Garrow|first2=David J.|last3=Kovach|first3=Bill|title=Reporting Civil Rights: American journalism, 1941–1963|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9j8OAQAAMAAJ|access-date=September 13, 2011|year=2003|publisher=Library of America|pages=92–97|isbn=9781931082280}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Harambee City : the Congress of Racial Equality in Cleveland and the rise of Black Power populism|last=Nishani|first=Frazier|date=2017|publisher=University of Arkansas Press|isbn=9781610756013|location=Fayetteville|pages=43, 124|oclc=973832475}}</ref>  On June 17, 2022, Chapel Hill [[North Carolina Superior Court|Superior Court]] Judge Allen Baddour, with full consent of the state, dismissed the 1947 North Carolina charges against the four Freedom Riders.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Foreman |first1=Tom Jr. |title=Freedom Riders' 1947 Convictions Vacated in North Carolina |url=https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2022-06-17/freedom-riders-1947-convictions-vacated-in-north-carolina |access-date=June 18, 2022 |work=U.S. News & World Report |agency=Associated Press |date=June 17, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Pequeño |first1=Sara |title=75 years later, a niece sees justice through for a Freedom Rider in NC |url=https://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/article262650177.html |access-date=June 18, 2022 |work=Charlotte Observer |date=June 18, 2022}}</ref>

In 1948, Rustin traveled to India to learn techniques of [[civil resistance|nonviolent civil resistance]] directly from the leaders of the Gandhian movement. The conference had been organized before [[Gandhi]]'s assassination earlier that year. Between 1947 and 1952, Rustin also met with leaders of independence movements in [[Ghana]] and [[Nigeria]]. In 1951, he formed the committee to Support South African Resistance, which later became the [[American Committee on Africa]].

Rustin was arrested in [[Pasadena, California]], in January 1953 for sexual activity in a parked car with two men in their 20s.<ref name="NPR 2019-01-06">{{cite news |first=Michel |last=Martin|author2= Emma Bowman |title=In Newly Found Audio, A Forgotten Civil Rights Leader Says Coming Out 'Was An Absolute Necessity' |url=https://www.npr.org/2019/01/06/682598649/in-newly-found-audio-a-forgotten-civil-rights-leader-says-coming-out-was-an-abso |access-date=January 7, 2019 |agency=NPR |date=January 6, 2019}}; "Lecturer Sentenced to Jail on Morals Charge", ''Los Angeles Times'', January 23, 1953, 23.</ref> Originally charged with vagrancy and lewd conduct, he pleaded guilty to a single, lesser charge of "sex perversion" (as [[sodomy]] was officially referred to in California at the time, even if consensual) and served 60 days in jail. The Pasadena arrest was the first time that Rustin's homosexuality had come to public attention. He had been and remained candid in private about his sexuality, although homosexual activity was still criminalized throughout the United States.<ref name="Magazine of History 2006-03" /> Rustin resigned from the [[Fellowship of Reconciliation (United States)|Fellowship of Reconciliation]] (FOR) because of his convictions. They also greatly affected Rustin's relationship with [[A. J. Muste]], the director of the FOR. Muste had already tried to change Rustin's sexuality earlier in their relationship with no success. Later in Rustin's life, they continued their relationship with more tension than they had previously.<ref name="Religion Dispatches 2012-06-25">{{Cite web|url=http://religiondispatches.org/gay-black-and-quaker-history-catches-up-with-bayard-rustin/|title=Gay, Black, and Quaker: History Catches Up with Bayard Rustin|last=Eason|first=Leigh|date=June 25, 2012|website=Religion Dispatches|language=en-US|access-date=May 26, 2019}}</ref> Rustin became the executive secretary of the [[War Resisters League]]. An American Legion chapter in Montana used Rustin's Pasadena conviction to try to cancel his lectures in the state.<ref name="Magazine of History 2006-03">{{Cite journal|title=Remembering Bayard Rustin|last=D'Emilio|first=John|date=March 2006|journal=Magazine of History|volume=20|issue=2|pages=12–14|doi=10.1093/maghis/20.2.12}}</ref>

Rustin served as an unidentified member of the [[American Friends Service Committee]]'s task force to write "[[Speak Truth to Power: a Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence|Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence]]",<ref>{{cite web |url=http://afsc.org/document/speak-truth-power |title=Available online from |publisher=AFSC |date=March 2, 1955 |access-date=November 1, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131103150809/http://afsc.org/document/speak-truth-power |archive-date=November 3, 2013 }}</ref> published in 1955. This was one of the most influential and widely commented upon [[Pacifism|pacifist]] essays in the United States. Rustin had wanted to keep his participation quiet, as he believed that his known sexual orientation would be used by critics as an excuse to compromise the 71-page pamphlet when it was published. It analyzed the [[Cold War]] and the American response to it, and recommended [[Nonviolence|non-violent]] solutions.

Rustin took leave from the War Resisters League in 1956 to advise minister [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] of the Baptist Church on Gandhian tactics. King was organizing the [[Montgomery bus boycott]]. According to Rustin, "I think it's fair to say that Dr. King's view of non-violent tactics was almost non-existent when the boycott began. In other words, Dr. King was permitting himself and his children and his home to be protected by guns." Rustin convinced King to abandon the armed protection, including a personal handgun.<ref>[http://stateofthereunion.com/home/season-2/bayard-rustin "Bayard Rustin&nbsp;– Who Is This Man"], ''State of the Reunion'' radio show, aired February 2011 on NPR, 1:40–2:10. Retrieved March 16, 2011. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516061236/http://stateofthereunion.com/home/season-2/bayard-rustin |date=May 16, 2013 }}.</ref> In a 1964 interview with [[Robert Penn Warren]] for the book ''[[Who Speaks for the Negro?]],'' Rustin also reflected that his integrative ideology began to differ from King's. He believed a social movement "has to be based on the collective needs of people at this time, regardless of color, creed, race."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities|title=Bayard Rustin|url=http://whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu/interview/bayard-rustin|website=Robert Penn Warren's Who Speaks for the Negro? Archive|access-date=February 11, 2015}}</ref>

The following year, Rustin and King began organizing the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]] (SCLC). Many African-American leaders were concerned that Rustin's sexual orientation and past Communist membership would undermine support for the civil rights movement. After the organization of the SCLC, Rustin and King planned a civil rights march adjacent to the [[1960 Democratic National Convention]] in Los Angeles. This did not sit well with U.S. Representative [[Adam Clayton Powell Jr.]], who threatened to leak to the press rumors of a fake affair between Rustin and King. King canceled the march, and Rustin left his position in the SCLC. King received criticism for this action from ''Harper's'' magazine, which wrote about him: "Lost much moral credit&nbsp;... in the eyes of the young." Although Rustin was open about his sexual orientation and his convictions were a matter of public record, the events had not been discussed widely beyond the civil rights leadership. Rustin did not let this setback change his direction in the movement.<ref name="Gates-Rivers" />
[[File:Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C. (Leaders of the march posing in front of the statue of Abraham Lincoln... - NARA - 542063 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Leaders of the March on Washington posing in front of the statue of Abraham Lincoln on August 28, 1963]]

===March on Washington===
{{Main|March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom}}
[[File:Bayard Rustin NYWTS 3.jpg|thumb|200px|Rustin and [[Cleveland Robinson]] of the [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom]] on August 7, 1963]]
Despite shunning from some civil rights leaders,

{{blockquote|[w]hen the moment came for an unprecedented mass gathering in Washington, Randolph pushed Rustin forward as the logical choice to organize it.<ref name="WP 2011-08-21">{{cite news |first=Steve |last=Hendrix |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/bayard-rustin-organizer-of-the-march-on-washington-was-crucial-to-the-movement/2011/08/17/gIQA0oZ7UJ_story.html |title=Bayard Rustin, organizer of the March on Washington, was crucial to the movement |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=August 21, 2011 |access-date=August 22, 2011}}</ref>}}

A few weeks before the [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom]] in August 1963, [[List of United States Senators from South Carolina|South Carolina Senator]] [[Strom Thurmond]] railed against Rustin as a "Communist, draft-dodger, and homosexual", and had his entire Pasadena arrest file entered in the record.<ref name="WP 2011-08-21" /> Thurmond also produced a [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] photograph of Rustin talking to King while King was bathing to imply that there was a same-sex relationship between the two, which both men denied.<ref name="Gates-Rivers" />

{{external media
| float = right
| video1 = [http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-151-rr1pg1jj76 "Eyes on the Prize; America, They Loved You Madly; Interview with Bayard Rustin"] conducted in 1979 for the ''America, They Loved You Madly'', a precursor to the ''[[Eyes on the Prize]]'' documentary in which he discusses the ''Brown'' decision, the reasons for increased civil rights activism after World War II, and his work to organize the [[March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom]].}}

Rustin became involved in the March on Washington in 1962 when he was recruited by A. Philip Randolph. The march was planned to be a commemoration of the Emancipation Proclamation one hundred years earlier.<ref name="Gates-Rivers" /> Rustin was instrumental in organizing the march. Aided by [[Eleanor Holmes Norton]] and Rachelle Horowitz,<ref name="WP 2011-08-21" /> he drilled off-duty police officers as marshals, bus captains to direct traffic, and scheduled the podium speakers. Despite King's support, NAACP chairman [[Roy Wilkins]] did not want Rustin to receive any public credit for his role in planning the march.<ref name="Life 2009-11-05" /> Wilkins said, "This march is of such importance that we must not put a person of his liabilities at the head." Because of this conflict, Randolph served as the director of the march and Rustin as his deputy. During the planning of the march, Rustin feared his previous legal issues would pose a threat to the march. Nevertheless, on September 6, 1963, a photograph of Rustin and Randolph appeared on the cover of ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine, identifying them as "the leaders" of the March.<ref name="Life 2009-11-05">[http://www.life.com/image/52259555/in-gallery/23101#index/0 ''Life Magazine''], September 6, 1963. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091105052431/http://www.life.com/image/52259555/in-gallery/23101#index/0 |date=November 5, 2009 }}.</ref> Rustin stated his thoughts on the march and said it "made Americans feel for the first time that we were capable of being truly a nation, that we were capable of moving beyond division and bigotry".<ref name=":12"/>

===New York City school boycott===
{{further|New York City school boycott}}
In early 1964, [[Reverend Milton Galamison]] and other Harlem community leaders invited Rustin to coordinate a citywide boycott of public schools to protest their [[de facto segregation]]. Prior to the boycott, the organizers asked the [[United Federation of Teachers]] Executive Board to join the boycott or ask teachers to join the picket lines. The union declined, promising only to protect from reprisals any teachers who participated. More than 400,000 New Yorkers participated in a one-day February 3, 1964, boycott demanding complete integration of the city's schools.<ref name="perlstein" />. Historian [[Daniel Perlstein]] notes that "newspapers were astounded both by the numbers of black and Puerto Rican parents and children who boycotted and by the complete absence of violence or disorder from the protesters."<ref name="perlstein" /> It was, Rustin stated, and newspapers reported, "the largest civil rights demonstration" in American history. Rustin said that "the movement to integrate the schools will create far-reaching benefits" for teachers as well as students.<ref name="perlstein">Perlstein, Daniel, [http://www.nyc.gov/html/cchr/justice/downloads/pdf/the_end_of_despair.pdf "The dead end of despair: Bayard Rustin, the 1968 New York school crisis, and the struggle for racial justice"], New York City government. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304203513/http://www.nyc.gov/html/cchr/justice/downloads/pdf/the_end_of_despair.pdf |date=March 4, 2016 }}.</ref>

Rustin organized a May March 18 which called for "maximum possible" integration. Perlstein recounts: "The UFT and other white moderates endorsed the May rally, yet only four thousand protesters showed up, and the Board of Education was no more responsive to the conciliatory May demonstration than to the earlier, more confrontational boycott."<ref name="perlstein" />

When Rustin was invited to speak at the [[University of Virginia#Integration, coeducation, and student dissent|University of Virginia in 1964]], school administrators tried to ban him, out of fear that he would organize a school boycott there.

===From protest to politics===
{{anchor|From Protest to Politics}}

In the spring of 1964, Martin Luther King was considering hiring Rustin as executive director of SCLC but was advised against it by [[Stanley Levison]], a longtime activist friend of Rustin's. He opposed the hire because of what he considered Rustin's growing devotion to the political theorist [[Max Shachtman]]. Other SCLC leaders opposed Rustin due to his sexuality.<ref>[[Taylor Branch|Branch, Taylor]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=CUI6tY9RJUYC&q=shachtman ''Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963–1965''] (Simon & Schuster, 1999), pp. 292–293. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160406210727/https://books.google.com/books?id=CUI6tY9RJUYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=pillar+of+fire&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NI0HVZrZMsHaUsWWgaAP&ved=0CB0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=shachtman&f=false |date=April 6, 2016}}.</ref>

At the [[1964 Democratic National Convention]], which followed [[Freedom Summer]] in Mississippi, Rustin became an adviser to the [[Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party]] (MFDP); they were trying to gain recognition as the legitimate, non–[[Jim Crow]] delegation from their state, where blacks had been officially [[Disfranchisement after Reconstruction era|disenfranchised]] since the turn of the century (as they were generally throughout the South) and excluded from the official political system. DNC leaders Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey offered only two non-voting seats to the MFDP, with the official seating going to the regular segregationist Mississippi delegation. Rustin and the AFL–CIO leaders urged the MFDP to take the offer. MFDP leaders, including [[Fannie Lou Hamer]] and [[Bob Moses (activist)|Bob Moses]], angrily rejected the arrangement; many of their supporters became highly suspicious of Rustin. Rustin's attempt to compromise appealed to the Democratic Party leadership.<ref name="perlstein" />

[[File:Bayard Rustin NYWTS 2.jpg|thumb|left|267px|Rustin, 1965]]

After the passage of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]], Rustin advocated closer ties between the civil rights movement and the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]], specifically the party's base among the white working class, many of whom still had strong union affiliations. With [[Tom Kahn]], Rustin wrote an influential article in 1964 called "From Protest to Politics", published in ''[[Commentary (magazine)|Commentary]]'' magazine; it analyzed the changing economy and its implications for African Americans. Rustin wrote presciently that the rise of automation would reduce the demand for low-skill high-paying jobs, which would jeopardize the position of the urban African-American working class, particularly in northern states. He believed that the working class had to collaborate across racial lines for common economic goals. His prophecy has been proven right in the dislocation and loss of jobs for many urban African Americans due to the restructuring of industry in the coming decades.
Rustin believed that the African-American community needed to change its political strategy, building and strengthening a political alliance with predominately white unions and other organizations (churches, synagogues, etc.) to pursue a common economic agenda. He wrote that it was time to move from protest to politics. Rustin's analysis of the economic problems of the Black community was widely influential.<ref>[[Staughton Lynd]], another civil rights activist, responded with an article entitled "Coalition Politics or Nonviolent Revolution?"</ref>

Rustin argued that since black people could now legally sit in the restaurant after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, they needed to be able to afford service financially. He believed that a coalition of progressive forces to move the Democratic Party forward was needed to change the economic structure.<ref name="chandra">{{Cite web|url=https://brooklynrail.org/2004/01/books/bayard-rustins-life-in-struggle|title=Bayard Rustin's Life in Struggle|last=Chandra|first=Mridu|date=January 1, 2004|website=The Brooklyn Rail|language=en-US|access-date=February 9, 2020}}</ref>

He also argued that the African-American community was threatened by the appeal of [[identity politics]], particularly the rise of "[[Black power]]". He thought this position was a fantasy of middle-class black people that repeated the political and moral errors of previous [[Black nationalism|black nationalists]], while alienating the white allies needed by the African-American community. ''Nation'' editor and [[Harvard Law School|Harvard Law]] Professor [[Randall Kennedy]] noted later that, while Rustin had a general "disdain of nationalism", he had a "very different attitude toward Jewish nationalism" and was "unflaggingly supportive of [[Zionism]]".<ref name="The Nation 2016-01-04">Randall Kennedy, [https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/protest-patronage/ "From Protest to Patronage"], ''The Nation'', September 11, 2003. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160104194411/http://www.thenation.com/article/protest-patronage?page=0%2C3 |date=January 4, 2016}}.</ref>

''Commentary'' editor-in-chief [[Norman Podhoretz]] had commissioned the article from Rustin, and the two men remained intellectually and personally aligned for the next 20 years.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}} Podhoretz and the magazine promoted the [[neoconservative]] movement, which had implications for civil rights initiatives as well as other economic aspects of the society. In 1985, Rustin publicly praised Podhoretz for his refusal to "pander to minority groups" and for opposing affirmative action quotas in hiring as well as black studies programs in colleges.<ref>[[Walter Goodman (critic)|Goodman, Walter]], [https://www.nytimes.com/books/99/02/21/specials/podhoretz-25years.html "Podhoretz on 25 Years at Commentary"], ''The New York Times,'' January 31, 1985. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305093450/http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/02/21/specials/podhoretz-25years.html |date=March 5, 2016 }}.</ref>

Because of these positions, Rustin was criticized as a "sell-out" by many of his former colleagues in the civil rights movement, especially those connected to [[grassroots organizing]].<ref>{{Cite news |first=Kenneth |last=Crabb|date=March 24, 2012 |title=Bayard Rustin at 100 |work=The Indypendent |url=https://indypendent.org/2012/03/bayard-rustin-at-100/ |access-date=June 5, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gBH5GRFw-fkC&q=bayard.+sell+out.+grassroots&pg=PA64|title=Bayard Rustin: American Dreamer|author1-link=Jerald Podair|last=Podair|first=Jerald|date=December 16, 2008|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=9780742564800|pages=64, 77}}</ref> They charged that he was lured by the material comforts that came with a less radical and more professional type of activism.{{citation needed|date=October 2021}} Biographer [[John D'Emilio]] rejects these characterizations, and "portrays the final third of Rustin's life as one in which his reputation among his former allies was routinely questioned. After decades of working outside the system, they simply could not accept working within the system."<ref name="chandra" /> However, Randall Kennedy wrote in a 2003 article that descriptions of Rustin as "a bought man" are "at least partly true", noting that his sponsorship by the [[AFL–CIO]] brought him some financial stability but imposed boundaries on his politics.<ref name="The Nation 2016-01-04" />

Kennedy notes that despite Rustin's conservative turn in the mid-1960s, he remained a lifelong socialist,<ref name="The Nation 2016-01-04" /> and D'Emilio argues that in the final phase of his life, Rustin remained on the left: "D'Emilio explains, even as Rustin was taking what appeared to be a more "conservative" turn, he remained committed to social justice. Rustin was making radical and ambitious demands for a basic [[redistribution of wealth]] in American society, including universal healthcare, the abolition of poverty, and full employment."<ref name="chandra" />

===Labor movement: Unions and social democracy===
Rustin increasingly worked to strengthen the labor movement, which he saw as the champion of empowerment for the African American community and for economic justice for all Americans. He contributed to the labor movement's two sides, economic and political, through the support of labor unions and social-democratic politics.
He was the founder and became the Director of the [[A. Philip Randolph Institute]], which coordinated the AFL-CIO's work on civil rights and economic justice. He became a regular columnist for the AFL-CIO newspaper.

On the political side of the labor movement, Rustin increased his visibility as a leader of the American movement for [[social democracy]]. In early 1972, he became a national co-chairman of the Socialist Party of America. In December 1972, when the Socialist Party changed its name to [[Social Democrats, USA]] (SDUSA) by a vote of 73–34, Rustin continued to serve as national co-chairman, along with [[Charles S. Zimmerman]].<ref name="NY Times 1972-12-31">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/31/archives/socialist-party-now-the-social-democrats-usa.html |title=Socialist Party Now the Social Democrats, U.S.A.|date=December 31, 1972 |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=February 8, 2010}} (limited free access).</ref> In his opening speech to the December 1972 Convention, Co-Chairman Rustin called for SDUSA to organize against the "reactionary policies of the Nixon Administration"; Rustin also criticized the "irresponsibility and élitism of the 'New Politics' liberals".<ref name="NY Times 1972-12-31" /> In later years, Rustin served as the national chairman of SDUSA.

During the 1960s, Rustin was a member<ref>{{cite book|last1=Forman|first1=James|title=The Making of Black Revolutionaries|date=1972|publisher=University of Washington Press|pages=220}}</ref> of the [[League for Industrial Democracy]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Carson|first1=Clayborne|title=In Struggle: SNCC and the Black Awakening of the 1960s|url=https://archive.org/details/instrugglesnccbl00cars_1|url-access=registration|date=1981|publisher=[[Harvard University]] Press|pages=[https://archive.org/details/instrugglesnccbl00cars_1/page/29 29]|isbn=9780674447264}}</ref> He would remain a member for years, and became vice president during the 1980s.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/WorkersRightsEastAndWestAComparativeStudyOfTradeUnionAnd|last1=Karatnycky|first1=Adrian|last2=Motyl|first2=Alexander J.|last3=Sturmthal|first3=Adolf|author3-link=Adolf Sturmthal |title=Workers' rights, East and West : a comparative study of trade union and workers' rights in Western democracies and Eastern Europe |date=1980|publisher=Transaction Publishing / [[League for Industrial Democracy]]|pages=150|isbn=9780878558674}}</ref>

===Foreign policy===
Like many liberals and some socialists, Rustin supported President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]'s [[containment policy]] against [[communism]], though criticizing specific conduct of the policy. In particular, to maintain independent labor unions and political opposition in [[Vietnam]], Rustin and others gave critical support to U.S. military intervention in the [[Vietnam War]], while calling for a negotiated peace treaty and democratic elections. Rustin criticized the specific conduct of the war, however, arguing in a fundraising letter sent to War Resisters League supporters in 1964 that he was "angered and humiliated by the kind of war being waged, a war of torture, a war in which civilians are being machine-gunned from the air, and in which American napalm bombs are being dropped on the villages."<ref>Rustin 2012, pp. 291–292.</ref>

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Rustin worked as a human rights and [[Election monitoring|election monitor]] for [[Freedom House]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=249|title=Freedom House: A History|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110823010319/http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=249|archive-date=August 23, 2011}}</ref>

In 1970, Rustin called for the U.S. to send military jets to aid Israel against [[Arab states]] in the [[War of Attrition]]; referring to a ''New York Times'' article he wrote, Rustin wrote to Prime Minister [[Golda Meir]] "...I hope that the ad will also have an effect on a serious domestic question: namely, the relations between the Jewish and the Negro communities in America." Rustin was concerned about unity between two groups that he argued faced discrimination in America and abroad, and also believed that Israel's democratic ideals were proof that justice and equality would prevail in the Arab territories despite the atrocities of war. His former colleagues in the peace movement considered it to be a profound betrayal of Rustin's nonviolent ideals.<ref>Arlyck, Matthew, [http://forusa.org/fellowship/2013/summer/book-review-i-must-resist/12390 "Review of I Must Resist: Letters of Bayard Rustin"], Fellowship of Reconciliation website. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419182230/http://forusa.org/fellowship/2013/summer/book-review-i-must-resist/12390 |date=April 19, 2016 }}.</ref>

Rustin maintained his strongly anti-Soviet and anti-communist views later in his life, especially with regard to Africa. Rustin co-wrote with [[Carl Gershman]] (a former director of [[Social Democrats, USA]] and future [[Ronald Reagan]] appointee) an essay entitled "Africa, Soviet Imperialism & the Retreat of American Power", in which he decried Russian and Cuban involvement in the [[Angolan Civil War]] and defended the military intervention by [[apartheid South Africa]] on behalf of the [[National Liberation Front of Angola]] (FNLA) and National Union for the Total Independence of Angola ([[UNITA]]). "And if a South African force did intervene at the urging of ''black'' leaders and on the side of the forces that clearly represent the ''black'' majority in Angola, to counter a non-African army of Cubans ten times its size, by what standard of political judgment is this immoral?" Rustin accused the Soviet Union of a classic imperialist agenda in Africa in pursuit of economic resources and vital sea lanes, and called the [[Carter Administration]] "hypocritical" for claiming to be committed to the welfare of blacks while doing too little to thwart Russian and Cuban expansion throughout Africa.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/download/AfricaSovietImperialismAndTheRetreatOfAmericanPower/SDP2.pdf |title=Africa, Soviet Imperialism & The Retreat Of American Power |publisher=Social Democrats, U.S.A.|first=Bayard |last=Rustin |author2=Carl Gershman |date=October 1977|access-date=November 1, 2013}}</ref>

In 1976, Rustin joined the anti-communist [[Committee on the Present Danger]] (CPD), which promoted [[Team B]]'s controversial intelligence claims about Soviet foreign policy, using them as an argument against arms control agreements such as [[SALT II]].<ref>John Ehrman, [https://books.google.com/books?id=_JX04sBnEWUC&q=bayard+rustin&pg=PA112 The Rise of Neoconservatism: Intellectuals and Foreign Affairs], 1945-1994 (Yale University Press, 1996), pp. 107–114. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610060721/https://books.google.com/books?id=_JX04sBnEWUC&pg=PA112&lpg=PA112&dq=committee+on+the+present+danger+members%2C+rustin&source=bl&ots=McPgDKvLmg&sig=XNcW-pyaNXbU4KoEwBa57v54vl4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=viQcVfa_LYqSsQS0l4CYCw&ved=0CE8Q6AEwCQ |date=June 10, 2016 }}.</ref>

=== Soviet Jewry movement ===
{{Main|Soviet Jewry Movement}}
The plight of Jews in the Soviet Union reminded Rustin of the struggles faced by African Americans in the United States. Soviet Jews faced many of the same forms of discrimination in employment, education, and housing, while also being denied the chance to emigrate by Soviet authorities.<ref>Podair, Jerald E. (2009), "Bayard Rustin: American Dreamer" (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield). {{ISBN|074254513X}}.</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2022}} After seeing the injustice that Soviet Jews faced, Rustin became a leading voice in advocating for the movement of Jews from the Soviet Union to Israel. In 1966 he chaired the Ad hoc Commission on Rights of Soviet Jews organized by the Conference on the Status of Soviet Jews, leading a panel of six jurors in the commission's public tribunal on Jewish life in the Soviet Union.<ref name="JTA 1966-12-05">{{Cite web|url=http://www.jta.org/1966/12/05/archive/commission-to-present-findings-on-soviet-jewry-to-u-n|title=Commission to Present Findings on Soviet Jewry to U.N.|date=December 5, 1966|website=Jewish Telegraphic Agency|access-date=July 15, 2016}}</ref> The commission collected testimonies from Soviet Jews and compiled them into a report that was delivered to the secretary-general of the United Nations. The report urged the international community to demand that the Soviet authorities allow Jews to practice their religion, preserve their culture, and emigrate from the USSR at their will.<ref name="JTA 1966-12-05" /> Through the 1970s and 1980s Rustin wrote several articles on the subject of Soviet Jewry and appeared at Soviet Jewry movement rallies, demonstrations, vigils, and conferences, in the United States and abroad.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Shared Dreams: Martin Luther King, Jr. & the Jewish Community|last=Shneier|first=Marc|publisher=Jewish Lights|year=2008|isbn=978-1580232739|location=New York|pages=117}}</ref> He co-sponsored the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry. Rustin worked closely with Senator [[Henry M. Jackson|Henry Jackson]] on the [[Jackson–Vanik amendment]], vital legislation that restricted United States trade with the Soviet Union in relation to its treatment of Jews.<ref name="Podair 2009 p99">Podair 2009, p. 99.</ref>

=== Criticisms ===
Rustin was at the forefront of the freedom struggle for African Americans but parted ways from the activists in 1968. He was considered an “[[Uncle Tom]]” by some as he started to fight for equality for all and not just blacks. An incident in the summer of 1964 in which a police officer killed a black child led to violence. “When he urged blacks to resist with non-violence, they spat at him and shot back “Uncle Tom! Uncle Tom!”. Rustin’s views of the protest were to “urge them not to behave with desperation but politically and rationally.” He would later switch from radicalism to collaboration. Rustin wanted blacks to align themselves with whites to see progression.<ref>{{Citation |last=Perlstein |first=Daniel |title=The Dead End of Despair |date=2011-04-15 |work=Civil Rights in New York City |pages=118–140 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt13wzxr4.10 |access-date=2024-04-17 |publisher=Fordham University Press |doi=10.2307/j.ctt13wzxr4.10 |isbn=978-0-8232-3746-3}}</ref>

===Gay rights===
Rustin's relationships were mainly with men, both black and white.<ref name=":02" /> Davis Platt, Rustin's partner from the 1940s,<ref>{{cite web |last=Drayton |first=Robert |date=January 18, 2016 |title=The Personal Life of Bayard Rustin |url=http://www.out.com/news-opinion/2013/08/28/bayard-rustin-walter-naegle-partner-gay-civil-rights-activist-march-washington |work=[[Out (magazine)|Out]]}}</ref> said "I never had any sense at all that Bayard felt any shame or guilt about his homosexuality. That was rare in those days. Rare."<ref name="Magazine of History 2006-03" /> His [[sexual orientation]] was openly accepted by his family.<ref name=":02" />

Rustin did not engage in any gay rights activism until the 1980s. He was urged to do so by his partner, [[Walter Naegle]], who said that "I think that if I hadn't been in the office at that time, when these invitations [from gay organizations] came in, he probably wouldn't have done them."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C1xJ5ONWltYC&q=bayard+rustin,+gay,+book,+voluntarily,+closet|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016235132/https://books.google.com/books?id=C1xJ5ONWltYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=bayard+rustin,+gay,+book,+voluntarily,+closet|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 16, 2015|title=Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin - John D'Emilio - Google Книги|date=October 16, 2015|access-date=October 22, 2018|isbn=9780684827803|last1=d'Emilio|first1=John| publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref> He was an advocate for people with [[HIV/AIDS]], and because of his public works, he may have “came out” to the public. Rustin no longer hid his sexual orientation from others.<ref>{{Citation |last=Carbado |first=Devon W. |title=Black Rights, Gay Rights, Civil Rights |date=2017-07-05 |work=Sexuality and Equality Law |pages=305–328 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315088051-10 |access-date=2024-04-17 |publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9781315088051-10 |isbn=978-1-315-08805-1 }}</ref>

Because same-sex marriage was not officially recognized at the time, Rustin and Naegle undertook to solidify their partnership and protect their union legally through adoption: in 1982 Rustin adopted Naegle, 30 years old at the time. Naegle explained that Bayard:<ref>{{Cite news|title=Long Before Same-Sex Marriage, 'Adopted Son' Could Mean 'Life Partner'|url=https://www.npr.org/2015/06/28/418187875/long-before-same-sex-marriage-adopted-son-could-mean-life-partner|work=[[Weekend Edition Sunday]] |publisher=NPR.org|access-date=November 16, 2015}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|... was concerned about protecting my rights, because gay people had no protection. At that time, marriage between a same-sex couple was inconceivable. And so he adopted me, legally adopted me, in 1982.

That was the only thing we could do to kind of legalize our relationship. We actually had to go through a process as if Bayard was adopting a small child. My biological mother had to sign a legal paper, a paper disowning me. They had to send a social worker to our home. When the social worker arrived, she had to sit us down to talk to us to make sure that this was a fit home.
|multiline=yes}}

Rustin testified in favor of the [[New York City Gay Rights Bill of 1986|New York City Gay Rights Bill]]. In 1986, he gave a speech titled "The New Niggers Are Gays", in which he asserted:<ref>{{cite news |title=Gays Are the New Niggers |url=http://killingthebuddha.com/mag/damnation/gays-are-the-new-niggers/ |date=June 26, 2009 |first=Osagyefo Uhuru |last=Sekou |newspaper=Killing the Buddha |access-date=July 2, 2009}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|text=Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new "niggers" are gays... It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change... The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people.}}

Also in 1986, Rustin was invited to contribute to the book ''In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology''. He declined, explaining:<ref>Yasmin Nair, [http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Bayard-Rustin-A-complex-legacy/36990.html "Bayard Rustin: A complex legacy"], ''Windy City Times'', March 3, 2012. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414212310/http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Bayard-Rustin-A-complex-legacy/36990.html |date=April 14, 2016 }}.</ref>

<blockquote>I was not involved in the struggle for gay rights as a youth{{nbsp}}... I did not "come out of the closet" voluntarily—circumstances forced me out. While I have no problem with being publicly identified as homosexual, it would be dishonest of me to present myself as one who was in the forefront of the struggle for gay rights{{nbsp}}... I fundamentally consider sexual orientation to be a private matter. As such, it has not been a factor which has greatly influenced my role as an activist.</blockquote>