Bayard Rustin dedicated his life to civil rights, nonviolence, and gay rights.

He was instrumental in one of the greatest civil rights demonstrations in history. In 1963, he worked with Martin Luther King Jr. to organize the March on Washington.

In the 1980s Rustin redirected his focus to gay rights, saying in 1986, "Gay people are the new barometer for social change."

He died the following year, but his extensive activism included fighting for the passage of New York’s gay rights bill and urging the NAACP to acknowledge the AIDS epidemic.