Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Barack Obama was the first African-American president of the United States. He previously served as a U.S. senator from Illinois from 2005 to 2008 and an Illinois state senator from 1997 to 2004.
Remembering Bayard Rustin in Life and Onscreen
nytimes.comAs an adolescent, Bayard Rustin had many virtues. He was smart: He served as his high school valedictorian. He was respectful: After tackling opponents as an offensive lineman on his high school team, he would help them up and recite a line of poetry.
And he was brave: While playing football, he organized a strike demanding equal accommodations for Black players who were forced to stay in substandard hotels on road trips.
Rustin (whose first name is pronounced BYE-urd) carried these values into adulthood, conceiving, organizing and executing in just two months the greatest protest in American history: the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Yet, despite his role as an architect of a movement that worked to pass the landmark Civil Rights Act, which outlawed segregation and discrimination, Rustin’s legacy was largely ignored.
