Bolstering Bayard Rustin: Collaborative Apologia, Heteronormativity, and the 1963 March of Washington

In the weeks preceding the 1963 March on Washington, Senator Strom Thurmond outed one of the march's lead organizers, Bayard Rustin. Thurmond's outing of Rustin threatened the movements moral authority, culminating in a variety of understudied discourse that defended Rustin, the march, and the civil rights struggle. In the wake of Rustin's outing, civil rights leaders minimized Rustin's sexuality to re-affirm the Christian ethos of King and the march. I center Bayard Rustin's sexuality to explore how heteronormativity constrained leaders' strategies, tactics, and rhetoric. This essay provides insight into the range of 1960s civil rights rhetoric as it attunes to questions about how sexuality and heteronormativity shaped civil rights advocacy.