Existing comment:
Organizing the March:
The task of organizing the march was given to Bayard Rustin. He quickly established an office in Harlem and pulled together a group of the most trustworthy and dedicated staff he could find. Organizing the march involved thousands of details: arranging transportation, fundraising, contracting a sound system, printing leaflets and brochures, ordering toilets, and soothing egos.
Bayard Rustin:
Bayard Rustin, Deputy Director and Organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Within the civil rights community, Bayard Rustin was recognized as one of the most gifted and experienced organizers. A committed pacifist, he helped introduce nonviolent techniques into the movement. He participated in the first freedom rides to desegregate interstate busing in the South in 1947. He also organized several mass demonstrations in the 1940s and 1950s and served as a leading strategist of the Montgomery bus boycott. Because he was a former member of the Communist Party in the 1930s, a conscientious objector during World War II, and openly homosexual, many saw him as too controversial to play such a prominent role in the March on Washington. |