Bayard Rustin - Legacy

Legacy

Despite the fact that he played such an important role in the civil rights movement, Rustin "faded from the shortlist of well-known civil rights lions," in large part because of public discomfort with his sexual orientation. However, the 2003 documentary film Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, a Sundance Festival Grand Jury Prize nominee, and the March 2012 centennial of Rustin's birth have contributed to some renewed recognition.

• According to Daniel Richman, former clerk for United States Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, Marshall's friendship with Rustin and Rustin's openness about his homosexuality played a significant role in Marshall's dissent from the court's 5–4 decision upholding the constitutionality of state sodomy laws in the later overturned 1986 case Bowers v. Hardwick.
• The Bayard Rustin Educational Complex located in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan is named for him.
• Bayard Rustin High School is located in his hometown of West Chester, Pennsylvania.
• Bayard Rustin Library at the Affirmations Gay/Lesbian Community Center in Ferndale, Michigan.
• Bayard Rustin Social Justice Center in Conway, Arkansas.
• Biographical feature of Bayard Rustin in the movie Out of the Past
• In July 2007, with the permission of the Estate of Bayard Rustin, a group of San Francisco Bay Area African American LGBT community leaders formed the Bayard Rustin LGBT Coalition (BRC), to promote greater participation in the electoral process, advance civil and human rights issues, and promote the legacy of Mr. Rustin.
• Bayard Rustin Center for LGBTQA Activism, Awareness and Reconciliation at Guilford College, a Quaker school. Formerly the Queer and Allied Resource Center, the March 2011 rededication was with the permission of the Estate of Bayard Rustin and featured a keynote address by social justice activist Mandy Carter.
• A Pennsylvania State Historical Marker is placed at Lincoln and Montgomery Avenues, West Chester, Pennsylvania, commemorating his accomplishments, on the grounds of Henderson High School where he attended.