Editing Bayard Rustin (section)

===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"/>