On this day, March 17, in 1912

American Civil Rights activist Bayard Rustin was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Rustin's political organizing career was very dynamic. Throughout his life, he protested and campaigned against segregation laws; fought in alliance with the Japanese-Americans in US internment camps; organized against British rule in India and Africa; and advocated for Gay Rights. After adopting a strict non-violent philosophy, Rustin counseled Civil Rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. and helped form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, from which he was later forced to resign because he was openly gay. Due to his sexuality, Rustin was largely written out of civil rights history and his enormous influence was heavily silenced.