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Rating: 
Summary: A Must-Read
Review: A extraordinary account of an extraordinary life. "Lost Prophet" is an engrossing account of how Bayard Rustin became a master strategist for the civil rights movement, despite significant homophobia and a smear campaign by government agencies.For anyone seeking to making a difference, this inspirational biography by John D'emilio is a "must-read." It will renew your commitment to justice and equality for all, regardless of the obstacles.
Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read
Review: A extraordinary account of an extraordinary life. "Lost Prophet" is an engrossing account of how Bayard Rustin became a master strategist for the civil rights movement, despite significant homophobia and a smear campaign by government agencies. For anyone seeking to making a difference, this inspirational biography by John D'emilio is a "must-read." It will renew your commitment to justice and equality for all, regardless of the obstacles.
Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read
Review: A extraordinary account of an extraordinary life. "Lost Prophet" is an engrossing account of how Bayard Rustin became a master strategist for the civil rights movement, despite significant homophobia and a smear campaign by government agencies. For anyone seeking to making a difference, this inspirational biography by John D'emilio is a "must-read." It will renew your commitment to justice and equality for all, regardless of the obstacles.
Rating:
Summary: A great historical document
Review: An exhaustive biography of the often overlooked archtect of the civil rights movement. An espouser of Gandhian non-violence and a mentor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Rustin was a man of fierce convictions, openly gay in a time when to be so jeopardized even his basic freedoms. D'Emilio records Rustin's life warts and all. He documents his numerous arrests for acts of civil disobedience, for being a conscientious objector, as well as on a morals charge. However, it is the triumphs that are most exhilerating to read about. The March on Washington, as one would expect, is a highlight. Finally, and definitively, the credit for coordinating this event is attributed to Rustin. In the face of extreme opposition from the likes of Strom Thurmond and J. Edgar Hoover, Rustin staged an event of epic porportion and historic significance. Rustin was one of the great unsung heroes of the last century. John D'Emilio's biography, with a cast of characters that reads like a who's who of the twentieth century, is a tribute to Rustin and a model of its kind.
Rating:
Summary: A great historical document
Review: An exhaustive biography of the often overlooked archtect of the civil rights movement. An espouser of Gandhian non-violence and a mentor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Rustin was a man of fierce convictions, openly gay in a time when to be so jeopardized even his basic freedoms. D'Emilio records Rustin's life warts and all. He documents his numerous arrests for acts of civil disobedience, for being a conscientious objector, as well as on a morals charge. However, it is the triumphs that are most exhilerating to read about. The March on Washington, as one would expect, is a highlight. Finally, and definitively, the credit for coordinating this event is attributed to Rustin. In the face of extreme opposition from the likes of Strom Thurmond and J. Edgar Hoover, Rustin staged an event of epic porportion and historic significance. Rustin was one of the great unsung heroes of the last century. John D'Emilio's biography, with a cast of characters that reads like a who's who of the twentieth century, is a tribute to Rustin and a model of its kind.
Rating:
Summary: Anything ahead of the times has a hard time in its own time
Review: Like many other people, I had not learned that 1963 March on Washington organizer Bayard Rustin was also homosexual. Because Rustin lived in a time when homosexuality was stigmatized (and march organizers had believed public recognition of his homosexuality was not 'respectable' Rustin had to keep this portion of his life hidden in order to have impact at this event.
Rustin complied with the now-unthinkable directive because social justice had always been a passion.
Rustin's Quaker upbringing influenced his passion for social justice. In college, he became an organizer for the Young Communist League; he later quit when they advocated World War II participation. Rustin's strong sense of morality would not allow him to enlist in World War II, he believed that a sentence in the federal prison system was the only moral option.
Rustin began freedom riding with the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) as early as the 1940's. Although these people were ahead of their time on many issues, they could not accept his sexuality. Rustin later found employment with the War Resisters League (which in that era at least stayed neutral on the issue) but the experience undoubtedly stayed with him.
Fortunately, Rustin was able to later come out in the 1970's. Until his death he was open about his identity as a gay man. Discrimination was the problem, not his sexuality.
Today, we continue to see inadvertent consequences from the earlier decision to minimize Rustin's identity as a gay man. The allegedly liberal mass media has largely persisted in portraying GLBT issues as universally white, and gave substantial airtime to Alveda King, a niece of the late Martin Luther King who denounces homosexuality.
The mass media tellingly elects to ignore the public GLBT rights support of Jesse Jackson and Coretta Scott King, who recognize there are many more blacks like Rustin. We cannot work towards the world he had envisioned without acknowlleging his whole self.
Rating: 
Summary: A name restored
Review: This biography is dedicated to the notion that Bayard Rustin deserves to be rememebered. John D'Emilio is persuasive in that regard. This is a scholarly work and it's well-written. The author does an excellent job of placing Rustin's life in context, showing where he fits in as a 20th century organizer and civil rights activist. It's a satisfying work.
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