Bayard Rustin: Orgs. Push For Forever Stamp
therainbowtimesmass.comNational Black Justice Coalition Celebrates Black Queer Civil Rights Leader Bayard Rustin’s Birthday by Calling on Congress to Issue Stamp Honoring Rustin’s Life and WorkWASHINGTON—In commemoration of Black Queer civil rights leader Bayard Rustin’s birthday today, March 17th, the National Black Justice Coalition, a leading Black LGBTQ+/SGL civil rights organization, is urging Congress to pass the Bayard Rustin Stamp Act, legislation introduced by Del.
Eleanor Holmes Norton which would require the U.S. Postal Service to issue a forever stamp depicting Bayard Rustin to honor his life and work.“Bayard Rustin was a master political organizer and pacifist.
He spoke truth to power, serving time in prison for refusing to register for the draft and engineering the first Freedom Rides, which challenged segregation on interstate buses.
We would not have the opportunity to celebrate many watershed moments in American and Global history without Rustin’s tireless leadership and labor to the modern civil rights movement as well as the global fight for human rights,” explained David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition. “Moreover, while Rustin was critical to the civil rights movement and organizing the 1963 March on Washington – what many people do not know or celebrate is that Bayard Rustin was a Black, same-gender-loving (SGL) man.”On March 17, 1912, Bayard Rustin was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
