Rustin (2023)

Edward McNulty
Aml Ameen and Colman Domingo stand smiling in a meeting room.

Photo by David Lee/Netflix © 2022

(L to R) Aml Ameen as Martin Luther King and Colman Domingo as Bayard Rustin in Netflix’s "Rustin," a film based on the life of late civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, a strategist and activist promoting nonviolent strategies for social change.

Rated: R.

Running time: 1 hour, 46 min.

Visual Parables content ratings (1-10): Violence 3; Language 2; Sex/Nudity 5.

The overlooked civil rights activist Bayard Rustin (Colman Domingo), often called the architect of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, is finally getting his due, thanks to the new film titled “Rustin,” directed by George C. Wolfe. His 2020 film adaptation of August Wilson’s play “Ma Rainy’s Black Bottom” was well received, so I hope this one will be also, thanks to the script by Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black (the latter the writer of “Milk”). We should also note that this is another film in which Barack and Michelle Obama are producers.

Although the film is given its subject’s last name, this is not a biographical film covering his whole life. It is the story behind the great event where 250,000 people gathered peacefully and at which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. And, unlike other anti-racism films, this one deals with homophobia as well, a form of hateful prejudice that predates even the four hundred years of racism in the U.S.

Right before the titles, we are given a quick civil rights lesson in a series of brief clips – the 1954 Supreme Court decision desegregating schools; a close-up a bottle of catsup being poured by a white man onto the head of a Black student during a lunch counter sit-in; a transformation into live action of Norman Rockwell’s iconic painting of 6-year-old Ruby Bridges being escorted by federal marshals to integrate a school in New Orleans in 1960; and high school student Elizabeth Eckford in 1957 walking through an angry white crowd, their hate-filled faces reflected in her sunglasses. A short but powerful sequence reminding us of the state of affairs in the middle of the 20th century.

After the titles we see Bayard Rustin and his friend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Aml Ameen) planning a demonstration at the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. (Not depicted in this film is Rustin going down from New York in 1956 to advise King on tactics for the Bus Boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. The TV film “Boycott” shows how he persuaded King to put aside guns and adopt Gandhi’s nonviolence. Rustin himself had become interested in Gandhi, and the latter’s nonviolent campaign to free India, while he was imprisoned for refusing to serve in the U.S. armed forces during World War II, even journeying in 1948 to India to study under Gandhi’s top associates.)

Before they get far into their planning, the homophobic U.S. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell (Jeffrey Wright) puts a stop to this when he threatens to not only out Rustin as a Communist and a homosexual, but to falsely claim that King and Rustin were lovers, unless he both calls off the demonstration and resigns from King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) board. At a meeting at NAACP headquarters Rustin is taken aback when King accepts his resignation, which he thought would be turned down. Rustin feels betrayed as he and King reluctantly go their separate ways.

Rustin goes to work for the War Resisters League, and thus is active in the anti-war/anti-nuclear movement, but, as we see at a party, the younger activists disdain him as a has-been. He does have one staunch supporter in A. Philip Randolph (Glynn Turman), the long-time president and founder of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, with whom he had planned a March on Washington back in 1941. This was called off when U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt agreed to their demands to desegregate the defense industry. (Randolph is a labor and civil rights pioneer who deserves his own bio film!) Randolph agrees when Rustin starts thinking of a new march, and the latter’s enthusiasm and charm soon bring together a cadre of young activists willing to work the 12- to 15-hour days necessary to pull off such a massive affair within a few months.

At the NAACP, under the leadership of Roy Wilkins (Chris Rock), Rustin’s proposed march is met with astonishment by its boldness: draw 100,000 people to Washington, D.C.! Wilkins and others strongly oppose it as being “impossible,” but Medgar Evers (Rashad Demond Edwards), head of the NAACP in Mississippi, joins Randolph in supporting Rustin. Wilkins and his staff walk out, and Randolph tells him that he must contact King and convince him to join them if the march is to become a reality.

As veteran civil rights organizer Ella Baker (Audra McDonald) speaks with Rustin, she also urges him to contact the one man who can make the march a going concern. Rustin, still hurting from King’s failure to back him when Powell attacked him, is reluctant to do so, but realizes she is right. As he is boarding a bus for Georgia there is a flashback to 1942 when, during the first Freedom Ride, a cop beat him savagely for refusing to move to the back of the bus. Switch back to the present, and Rustin is reading an African American newspaper headline that Medgar Evers has just been shot.

The reconciliation scene in Atlanta is one of my favorites in this film, filled with many inspirational moments. Coretta Scott King (Carra Patterson) greets him at the door of their home, surprised but pleased, insisting that he stay for dinner. Martin is out, but the four children are with her in the kitchen, the three older ones glad to see their “Uncle Rustin” again. He starts to sing with the children “This Little Light of Mine,” the children’s voices blending with his. Then, evoking her past as a concert singer, he invites Corretta, who is holding the youngest child in her arms, to join her clear soprano voice with theirs. Hers is soaring over theirs as Martin walks into the house and sees Rustin leading his family in a musical parade around the dining room table. He is surprised, but obviously glad to reunite with his old friend.

After dinner they talk about the march and President Kennedy’s televised speech in response to the police dogs and fire hoses used against Black demonstrators in Birmingham. Rustin discounts this as just political window dressing and not a serious commitment to civil rights. They joke and admit to having missed each other, and before long, with Rustin's promising no more “incidents” (referring to an arrest on the west coast during the 50s for “sexual perversion”), his host agrees to get aboard.

Others who join the cause are long-time fighters for equal opportunities for women Dr. Anna Arnold Hedgeman (CCH Pounder) as well as future Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes (Ayana Workman), both standouts because there are so few women among the civil rights leaders, and these few are at secondary levels. Freedom Rider and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Chair John Lewis (Maxwell Whittington-Cooper), James Farmer (Frank Harts) of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and Whitney Young (Kevin Mambo) of the Urban League are convinced to join, although they have their doubts. Later, labor organizer and activist Cleveland “Cleve” Robinson (Michael Potts) will travel to New York City to add his many skills to the project. At NAACP headquarters Roy Wilkins summarily orders most of the attendees to leave the room during a discussion concerning the suitability of Rustin to head the proposed project. Robinson is so upset at being thrust out of the discussion that he yells insults at Wilkins as he is escorted out.

Rustin, Robinson, and the others wait while the acrid discussion unfolds inside the NAACP boardroom. Wilkins is vehement in his opposition. When Randolph emerges, he discloses that it is he, not Rustin, who has been appointed to head up the planning committee. He quickly adds, to the delight of everyone, that his first act is to name Rustin his deputy, to be in charge of the whole operation.

We see how enthusiastically the young activists move into a dilapidated building in Harlem and transform it into the nerve center for the march. Accepting their various assignments – fundraising, publicity and communications, transportation, food prep, the availability of water, security and crowd control, recruitment of celebrity supporters, sanitary needs, cleaning up afterwards, etc. – they go to work. Rustin concerns himself with virtually every detail, as per example when he overrules a young woman’s intention of serving cheese sandwiches for the marchers. He argues for peanut butter sandwiches. When she demurs because cheese would be more nutritious, he points out that it will be so hot on the August day of the march that cheese will melt and spoil.

The heads of all the civil rights agencies eventually agree to work together. They are dubbed “The Big Six.” Soon the planning committee is joined by four other leaders, including United Auto Workers Union President Walter Reuther and Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church Eugene Carson Blake, and the group becomes “The Big Ten.” During the back and forth talk among the leaders, Rustin has to agree to shorten what he desires as a two-day event to a one-day affair. Nor would demonstrators surround the White House as he had hoped. All agree that the march will be “for jobs and freedom,” and not so much a protest.

Amidst all the planning scenes are several flashbacks to Rustin’s past, including the already-mentioned 1942 Freedom Ride when a policeman beat him for refusing to give up his seat and move to the back of the bus. He points to the large gap in his teeth where one had been knocked out. We also learn that he had been a professional singer, even recording an album of Spirituals and Elizabethan songs.

The script writers do not hide Rustin’s homosexuality, as well as revealing that Rustin was not at that time monogamous. He has been having an affair with a young white activist named Tom (Gus Halper) but suspends their personal relationship when Tom becomes his assistant in planning for the march. However, when Rustin meets the married Rev. Elias Taylor (Johnny Ramey) at NAACP headquarters, each is attracted to the other. (Taylor is a fictional composite of some real persons, as is Tom.) They eventually meet clandestinely in a gay bar and kiss. During one of their conversations, Rustin tells his new lover that, unlike many homosexuals, he has never felt shame for his condition. This is because of his grandmother, a Quaker, from whom he also gained his belief in nonviolence. She had raised him after his mother had abandoned him. When he came out to her, she offered no objection or scolding, and accepted him as he was.

The much younger Taylor is about to inherit the pastorate of his father-in-law and is torn between Rustin and his family; his anguish is intensified by the fact that his wife Claudia (Adrienne Warren) is pregnant. I wish I could say that Rustin called an end to their affair, but it is Claudia, confronting Rustin over the phone, who puts an end to their relationship. We also see a conversation that becomes heated when Rustin’s boss at The War Resisters League, A. J. Muste ((Bill Irwin), chastises Rustin for his lifestyle, ignorantly telling him that it was a choice he made to get back at his mother for abandoning him.

The film suffers from the brevity with which the actual March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 26 is treated. The anxiety Rustin feels about the number who show up, as well as concern over any violence that might break out is well displayed, along with the hostility of the Washington, D.C. police toward him, but so much that happened that day is too briefly depicted. We see the long line of marchers – and I was glad to see that in the front row is the chief officer of my own denomination, Stated Clerk Eugene Carson Blake, identifiable in the group scene by his white skin and clerical collar. Some vintage footage is worked in with enacted scenes. And an engaging sextet of Black youth sing a portion of “Oh Freedom” in glorious harmony.

There were eight speeches besides King’s, including a short one by Blake, and one by Daisy Bates of Little Rock fame, but you would think from this film that there was only one. The one woman allowed to speak was the result of Hedgeman’s objection during a planning session that not a single woman was on the slate of speakers. That excellent scene, with her passionately putting forth her objection, makes clear how paternalistic the Civil Rights Movement was, something that Rustin apparently was also complicit in without much awareness.

We do hear and see a part of Mahalia Jackson’s gospel song and then a portion of the “I Have a Dream” speech, but far too short a portion to achieve the exciting climax the filmmakers intended. The little piece of the oration shown is well after Jackson, sensing that his written speech was not connecting with the audience, called to him to “Tell them about the dream, Martin.” Why in the world was this omitted!? The best part of the speech sequence is at its end. There is a long, meaningful glance between King, when he turns around and looks at his mentor, Rustin, standing behind him. That prolonged glance speaks volumes about their resurrected relationship and feelings toward each other.

“The Big Ten” received an invitation to meet with President Kennedy in the White House, but not the chief organizer. One of the leaders says Rustin should be there too, but Rustin answers that a few weeks ago he said “I’d happily act as a trash collector if we pulled today off.” He is left out again, but neither resentful nor discouraged.

I love the last shots of the unruffled Rustin, but will resist the temptation to describe the scene, other than to say that what he is doing might remind you of the ending of the delightful “Bruce Almighty.” Both films demonstrate what Jesus meant when he taught servant leadership to his disciples. If you remember only one of the wonderful scenes in this film, I hope this it. The end cards go on to inform us that 250,000 citizens showed up for the march; that Congress soon passed a Civil Rights Act; and that in 1977 Rustin fell in love with Walter Naegel and lived with him for the rest of his life.

This film serves as an inspiring tribute to a “forgotten hero,” one who definitely had his flaws, but his homosexuality was not one of them. Despite society’s labeling him as a “sex pervert,” he was able to advance the cause of civil rights immeasurably. The couple of frank scenes with a same-sex partner might prevent some church groups from watching the film together, but those who choose to do so will learn an immense amount about the ins and outs of the March on Washington that we recall on every Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

The cast of characters is a Who’s Who of the Civil Rights Era. (Although, for some strange reason, Dr. Dorothy I. Height, President of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), who was responsible for the two leaders of SNNC being included in the planning, was not portrayed.) At a time when our country seems so fractured that we fear that nothing can be accomplished, it's helpful to look back and discover how fractious the Civil Rights Movement was, with leaders at first attacking each other or jockeying for positions. Rustin teaches us to keep on hoping that with the right kind of leadership, great things can be accomplished. Urging people to become “angelic troublemakers,” he foreshadows his young co-worker, who grew to be U.S. Congressman John Lewis, who urged us to get into “good trouble.”

For Reflection/Discussion

  1. What, if anything, had you heard about Bayard Rustin before watching this film? What are the three strikes against him according to people like Senator Strom Thurmond?
  2. In what ways was his grandmother a major influence on his development? What was he spared – and how – something that plagued many homosexuals in the 20th century and led many to suicide? (An example of this is Alan Turing, the British mathematician who played a major role in cracking various Nazi codes during World War II but still, in 1952, was arrested for “gross indecency,” tried, and sentenced to either prison or a chemical process that would affect his hormones. He chose the latter and died from cyanide poisoning in 1954 in what was ruled a suicide. See the film “The Imitation Game.”) In other words, what happened when as a young person he told his grandmother about his sexual orientation?
  3. Did you know that the 1963 March on Washington was not the first to be suggested: what two people were involved in both during 1963 and 1941? Why was the first one called off?
  4. What do you know about A. Philip Randolph? Why was he regarded as the senior statesman of the Civil Rights Movement? What is his relationship with Bayard Rustin?
  5. What influence do we see of the Indian activist Mohandas Gandhi? He was murdered in 1948 and yet how does his legacy live on?
  6. What influence does Bayard Rustin have on Martin Luther King Jr.? Were you surprised at some of this?
  7. List the names of the major civil rights organizations in the 1960s. What was the prime focus of each one?
  8. How does the film show that they were not united, and often divided?
  9. What do you think of the tactic of the U.S. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell in regard to Rustin? How is the Congressman typical of the way in which most Americans regarded homosexuals in the 1950s and 1960s?
  10. What must Rustin feel when King does not back him up at the leaders’ meeting where he hands over his letter of resignation?
  11. One of Rustin’s close friends is civil rights organizer Ella Baker. How is she crucial, perhaps second in importance only to A. Philp Randolph, in the events that unfold in this story? What does this reveal about the status of King in the Black community at that time? How was it so high that even Roy Wilkins had to change his mind about the march?
  12. The film is so full of civil rights notables that a group could play a game of “Spot That Activist.” Make a list of their names and share what you know about them. As always, Wikipedia is a good source for learning about them; just click on the names below:
  13. For Presbyterians who might be using this guide: in the march segment we see the marchers heading toward the Lincoln Memorial with King, Rustin, and Randolph in the middle. This is based on a famous photograph, and to one side in that front row is a white man in a clergyman’s suit and a hat on top of his head. Did you recognize him?
  14. How did Rustin and Randolph conceive the march at first, and how did they have to compromise? If it had included, as they wanted, a blockade of the White House, how might the public have reacted to the march? (Note that the pressure the planners put on John Lewis to tone down his strongly militant speech is not included in the film.)
  15. The film does not hold back on Rustin’s flaws, real and those perceived by society – his promiscuity, his being gay, as well as his lack of concern that he might be breaking up Rev. Elias Taylor’s marriage. Yes, our hero did have clay feet. Not to justify this, but in what ways did society then make monogamy for gays very difficult? How did this play to the public’s view of homosexuals and even contribute to their view of AIDS, and also to our government’s and the medical establishment's initial neglect of its victims?
  16. At the office of the War Resisters League, A.J. Muste chastises Rustin for his sexual orientation and, playing amateur psychologist, tells him that he is doing this to get even with his mother for abandoning him. What is the assumption, shared by most people at the time, about the role of choice in one’s sexual orientation? How is this related to what some people call conversion therapy?
  17. One of the flashbacks depicts what happened to Rustin during his 1947 Freedom Ride. Comment on what he said about it in this excerpt from the L.A. Times interview, January 23, 1953: “As I was going by the second seat to go to the rear, a white child reached out for the ring necktie I was wearing and pulled it, whereupon its mother said, ‘Don't touch a nigger.’ If I go and sit quietly at the back of that bus now, that child, who was so innocent of race relations that it was going to play with me, will have seen so many blacks go in the back and sit down quietly that it's going to end up saying, ‘They like it back there, I've never seen anybody protest against it.’ I owe it to that child, not only to my own dignity, I owe it to that child, that it should be educated to know that Blacks do not want to sit in the back, and therefore I should get arrested, letting all these white people in the bus know that I do not accept that. It occurred to me shortly after that that it was an absolute necessity for me to declare homosexuality because if I didn't I was a part of the prejudice. I was aiding and abetting the prejudice that was a part of the effort to destroy me.”
  18. What do you think Rustin means when he says that “angelic troublemakers” are needed? How is this similar to what his co-worker, John Lewis, said about getting into “good trouble”? Note that segregationists sought to put down civil rights activists by calling them “outside agitators” and “troublemakers.” How is it a good thing that the two leaders turned such accusations around and affirmed them?
  19. Dr. Anna Hedgeman protests to her colleagues that no woman is included on the list of speakers? How was this reflective of the paternalism of the civil rights leaders, including Rustin and King? Those knowledgeable of the pre-Civil War Abolitionist Movement might report how this was also true back then and how the women leaders felt betrayed when Black abolitionists refused to include them in the post-Civil War struggle over the voting rights amendment to the Constitution.
  20. How are the following women civil rights leaders overlooked, just as Rustin was?
  21. At the march, what seems to be the makeup of the crowd? There were Black leaders who would have preferred that whites be excluded. Why was it important that this be a mixed-race affair? How does the group of young singers harmonizing “Oh Freedom” emphasize the harmony displayed by the Black and white marchers?
  22. Do you agree that the segment about the actual day of the march was too short? What else do you think should have been included? Snatches of some of the others who spoke, especially Daisy Bates, to reveal that Hedgeman’s protest bore a little fruit? (Bates was not on the program to speak, she was substituting for Mrs. Medgar Evers, who missed her flight.) Shots of the numerous celebrities who showed up, especially of singers like Dylan, Baez, or Peter, Paul & Mary? More of Dr. King’s speech?
  23. What do you think of the last shots of Rustin? A carrying out of his statement, “I’d happily act as a trash collector if we pulled today off”? How does he embody Christ’s teaching of servant leadership? The review suggests that we compare this to the ending of “Bruce Almighty.” How are the two endings similar and the picture of God conveyed in that film unique?
  24. In what ways does Bayard Rustin walk in the footsteps of the Hebrew prophets? How are such persons vital to the spiritual and moral health of our nation?

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