Now, maybe you know who Bayard Rustin (1910–1987) is, and if so, good for you, because Bayard Rustin isn't exactly on the tip of everyone's tongue. That's probably because he was kind of on the margins in his own time. Believe it or not, being an openly gay Black pacifist former communist during the Civil Rights Movement/Cold War/Vietnam War did not exactly make you mainstream (Black or white) America's favorite person.

But, at the same time, Rustin wasn't on the margins at all. He coordinated civil rights activities for decades, and we're talking some big stuff, like co-founding the Congress of Racial Equality and Southern Christian Leadership Conference and organizing King's uber-famous March on Washington. You know, the one with everyone's favorite speech.

Basically, Bayard brought all the activists to the…'yard. Which in this case was the National Mall. He planned all the details down to how many bathroom and first-aid stations would be needed and what people should bring for lunch.

Even though he was making things happen behind the scenes, the NAACP leaders didn't want Rustin to be the public face of the march because of his sexual orientation. He had to settle for being the deputy director.

You'd Think He'd Be Satisfied Being the World's Best Event Planner

But Rustin wasn't just a useful logistics guy. Oh, no. Get a mop, 'cause we're about to throw out something that'll blow your brain clean out of your ears: Martin Luther King, Jr. would not have been Martin Luther King, Jr. if not for Bayard Rustin.

Now, to be fair, we can't know that for sure. King might have arrived at the same conclusions anyway. But it's still true that Bayard Rustin played a key role in shaping MLK's thoughts.

Rustin was already invested in the doctrine of nonviolence when, in 1948, he went to India to study Gandhi's ideas and methods. Some years later, he got involved with the Montgomery bus boycott, led by MLK. King knew about Gandhi, but it was Bayard Rustin who'd studied Gandhi deeply, and it was Rustin who (along with a couple other folks) tutored King on the practical and philosophical nitty-gritty of nonviolent activism.

And the rest, as they say, is…you know.

(History. It's history.)

History That's Still Going On, by the Way

After King was assassinated, Rustin participated in the memorial march with the Memphis sanitation workers. Later on, he became increasingly vocal about gay rights, saying that

Twenty-five, 30 years ago, the barometer of human rights in the United States were black people. That is no longer true. The barometer for judging the character of people in regard to human rights is now those who consider themselves gay, homosexual, lesbian. (Source)

Even though we're still grappling with its unfinished business, the Civil Rights Movement can sometimes seem like the distant past. But the LGBTQ rights movement is in full swing today, and Bayard Rustin was part of that.

There's no way to know what Dr. King would have thought about such issues had he lived, but we do know he held Rustin in very high esteem, even when other civil rights leaders were uncomfortable with their association. King did bail on Rustin for a while when Adam Clayton Powell threatened to spread a rumor that they were lovers, but they patched things up just in time for Rustin to help put together the March on Washington. And we all know how that went.

In 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Rustin the residential Medal of Freedom. His longtime partner, Walter Naegle, accepted on Rustin's behalf.

Guess some things do change. A little, at least.