Bayard Rustin was born in 1912 to a Quaker family in Pennsylvania and died in 1987 as one of the most important civil rights activists of his generation. He was a peace promoting, openly gay man who worked his entire life to change the injustices around him.
In 1942, 13 years before Rosa Parks’ Montgomery bus boycott, Rustin boarded a bus traveling from Louisville to Nashville and saw the look in a child’s eyes who innocently reached for his hand. He decided to sit in the second row near the child despite the mother calling Rustin the “n” word. He decided that if he moved to the back of the bus the innocent child would grow up believing that’s where black people belonged. Rustin chose to stay in the second row despite all the white passengers yelling profanities at him and he was eventually dragged off the bus, beaten to within an inch of his life by numerous police officers and arrested.
This protest was the beginning of the bus boycott movement and clarified for Rustin that neither his blackness nor his gayness should stand in the way of his oneness with his fellow citizens. Rustin became affiliated with Dr. Martin Luther King and was instrumental in teaching King about non-violent protests.
The biopic “Rustin” directed by George C. Wolfe and starring Colman Domingo, depicts the journey and relationship of Rustin with Dr. King and how they survived years of personal conflict to come together and put on the 1963 March on Washington. It was a Herculean feat, and it was Rustin who kept the dream alive for two decades despite all the forces around him saying it was impossible.
And while Rustin was at the helm of this change, his openly gay lifestyle worked against him, and he was relegated to the background where his flamboyant and bigger than life personality wouldn’t stand in the way of progress. In fact, he was all but erased from civil rights history.
“Rustin” is about the lead up to the march spanning two decades, so there are obviously other characters who are involved, one notably played by Chris Rock, but the film lives and dies with Domingo’s performance. When he’s not on screen, the movie gets lost, and so did I. Thankfully Wolfe was aware of the gold mine he had in Domingo so there aren’t many scenes without Rustin. He chews up every ounce of the screen and embodies this civil rights pacifist with every cell of his being. And it paid off because Domingo has been nominated for an Oscar for his performance.
The script has some moments that landed deep within my soul. And it’s no wonder. Dustin Lance Black who won an Oscar for “Milk”, teamed up with writer Julian Breece to pen the script and if that wasn’t enough star power behind the scenes, Michelle and Barack Obama’s Higher Ground production company produced the film as their first narrative feature.
There’s so much history packed into this film, maybe too much. I felt it lost the plot at times, toggling back and forth between Rustin’s layered life and the insurmountable injustices of the 50’s and 60’s and in the end the film felt too conventional. More like a history documentary than a cinematic telling of a man who never lost sight of his dream – to create change through non-violence protest- and he used his greatest weapon to get there - Dr. King and a speech that will live on forever.
“Rustin” streams on Netflix, is rated PG-13 and has a running time of 1 hour and 46 minutes.
