Bayard Rustin is one of the most influential social and political activists in American civil rights history you’ve rarely heard of. It’s more likely you’ve heard of his protégé – the more charismatic and oratorical Martin Luther King who preached non-violent protest. Despite not being as attracted to the limelight as MLK, Rustin was the mastermind behind staging the two day March On Washington in 1963 to enshrine civil rights for all Americans into law. His story is depicted in the eponymous film, Rustin.

“I think that Bayard Rustin knew is that power corrupts and racism is all about power,” declares screenwriter Julian Breece (When They See Us, Harlem). “There’s a real investment in the racial hierarchy. We see that causing the implosion because of the fear that, not just with black people, but all minorities wanting equality and dignity,” he continues.

Bayard propelled is his message of inclusion and non-violent protest during this march. All this while facing vicious homophobia, slander, and racism to further his cause.

Writer/ producer Dustin Lance Black (Milk) started developing Rustin around a decade earlier. Breece took a meeting with Black outlining his deep passion for the project so Black hired Breece to write the screenplay.

Julian Breece. Photo by Colton Haynes

“I wrote the script in 2014. It was set up at Netflix by, maybe in 2019 with George C. Wolfe (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) directing. At that time, Black, who worked closely with Wolfe, also did some additional rewriting to Breece’s script.”

Civil Rights Is A Multi-Pronged Issue

The March On Washington focused on jobs and housing for minorities, but the civil rights movement is much broader and intersectional in scale. It’s about protecting our shared humanity. For Rustin, “Civil rights were as important as the idea of equality because he knew that with racial integration, the inability for people of color to have legal equal employment opportunity and economic equality meant nothing,” adds Breece.

Rustin focuses on the planning of the march rather than the march itself in his film. The actual events of that two day march are little more than some graphics and some stock images at the end of the film. This is a deliberate strategy to illuminate Bayard Rustin, the man more than his accomplishments. “He was my hero since I was a teenager. When I discovered him, not at school, because they were not covering him in history classes, I was coming to terms with the fact that this gay thing was going to stick with me. I was looking for any signs of life and positive outcomes from being black and gay,” says the screenwriter.

Fortuitously, Breece is also from Washington D.C. so he can easily visit the site of the march each year where there are celebrations.

Julian Breece also wants to tell Bayard Rustin’s rich backstory in his film beyond the march. “He started working on Black Freedom many years earlier, but the Washington March is his most notable achievement.” The screenwriter wasn’t interested in writing a cradle to grave biopic film, especially when you only have two hours to tell a story.

“I want to tell Rustin’s story as elegantly as possible. I took the moment that was most impactful in Rustin’s (Colman Domingo) life. It also happened to bring together all the players from his life including A. Philip Randolph (Glynn Turman), Martin Luther King (Aml Ameen).”

“I think that the big challenge was finding the personal story. I’ve done a few biopics now that are centered on black gay characters. [Julian Breece wrote the script for black, queer dancer Alvin Ailey]. Being able to get the information about their personal lives was difficult because of how difficult and dangerous it was to be gay. It took a lot of digging.” Bayard Rustin was notably arrested for lewd conduct in 1945 which was always used against him.

Bayard Rustin vs Martin Luther King

MLK captured most of the limelight in the civil rights movement. Although the significance of King’s work shouldn’t be minimized, Rustin was often sidelined because he preferred grassroots activism and organizing to taking the center stage. Curiously, he was Martin Luther King’s mentor.

“Rustin cared about equality. He felt that all humans were created equal and they should be appreciated. They should be able to live in peace and privacy without judgment. He did not care about the glory.”

Bayard Rustin believed in truth more than rousing speeches. He preferred to live authentically than chase fame. His preferred mode of activism was through non-violent resistance – a mantra he imbibed during his extensive travels to India. “He bought the teachings of Gandhi to the civil rights movement, which King propagated.”

Julian Breece notes that black people are often more accepting of homosexuality and other minorities than other populations. “A lot of it was because of segregation, so there was no pushing each other out. We embraced each other.”

“It wasn’t until the push for integration happened that black people knew that they had to fall in line with the white patriarchal mainstream in order for us to be able to integrate. Not only did we have to fall in line, we had to exceed it.”

Bayard Rustin (Colman Domingo) Photo by David Lee/ Netflix

Sadly, this led to a rupture in King and Rustin’s relationship. “I think that we see that growth arc in King, a leadership lesson that he had to learn through his relationship with his mentor.” The movement also explores the nature of power. Once you start becoming a threat to the power of the movement, you have to be expelled to serve the greater good.

Julian Breece spent many years undertaking painstaking research into Bayard Rustin’s life. His life was extraordinary, so he didn’t need to embellish it. He didn’t need to. However, there were some gaps in recorded facts, especially during private conversations, where Breece needed to invent something plausible that fitted in with the surrounding facts. Breece conducted numerous interviews with people who knew Rustin well, so he really got the “essence of him.” “You’re able to craft a scene that feels right based on you knowing what the outcomes are,” he mentions.

Breece cites the example of a scene where Rustin needed to convince King to attend the march. “So knowing how it began, knowing how it ended, knowing who the two of them are, and knowing Bayard was a rebel,” shaped the scene. “King is a public figure who has to be careful of his associations.”

“The most impactful thing is Bayard stepping out on his vision, stepping out on faith, with a plan that this is what needs to happen to achieve equality. He was willing to take the big risk. He’s the ultimate outsider-insider. He is someone who is very important to the movement, but he’s someone who has to remain on the fringes of it. As a result of being an outsider, he has a bird’s eye view of the field. That was his gift as a strategist because King was always in the public eye. He was able to see outside of the lines in ways that his contemporaries and his colleagues didn’t,” continues Breece.

“The people that we push out because they’re different, because they are outsiders, we could really be missing out on their gifts. Bayard Rustin wrote the blueprint for the black freedom movement in this country and subsequent liberation movements globally that used this movement as an example.”

All this sentiment is expressed in a poignant scene where Bayard pulled on King to step into his power. “We see a culmination of the mentor-mentee relationship. King was a neophyte and you see Bayrd giving him that final lesson that sent him out into the world with that famous ‘I have a dream’ speech.”

Final Thoughts

“Rustin was a man of the highest integrity. He was a man of extraordinary gifts as a strategist and as an organizer. We would have missed out on them if he had not cared so much. His mission was  for all people to have their dignity bestowed upon them globally, and he would not allow himself to be banished.” Rustin even retuned to the movement after he was banished from it for being too radical. He believed in the promise of America even when her skies were filled with dark clouds.

Concludes Breece, “The most important thing that I would love to see people take away from this film is that you need the outsiders, you need the outcasts, you need the freaks who care enough about humanity to fix it.“