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Article: What he overcame: a fine new biography tells the story of Bayard Rustin, the great, gay hero of the American civil rights movement.(book excerpt)
- Article from:
- The Advocate (The national gay & lesbian newsmagazine)
- Article date:
- September 2, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Regent Media. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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"Who is Bayard Rustin?" That's the first question posed by acclaimed gay historian John D'Emilio in Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin (Free Press, $35). An eminent scholar who also happens to teller, D'Emilio has written the most comprehensive biography yet of Rustin, the African-American activist who organized the 1963 March on Washington and mentored Martin Luther King Jr.--but who has since faded into obscurity while King has been exalted.
How could so formidable a man as Rustin be overlooked to this day in our pantheon of civil rights heroes? He was gay. In this excerpt D'Emilio writes about the price Rustin paid in an America in which, ...