Selective Service registration card of Bayard Rustin, October 6, 1940.

Bayard RustinA prolific activist, Bayard Rustin was known as “an intellectual engineer behind the scenes,” and the success of the March on Washington was credited to his planning.

He was in federal prison from 1944 to 1946 for conscientiously objecting to serving in World War II. He helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Coalition to support the efforts of a then young, largely unknown minister named Martin Luther King Jr.. His achievements could have made him a household name.

But his open homosexuality led organizations to keep him in the background.

Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and Museum.

This document is being featured in conjunction with the National Archives’ National Conversation on Civil Rights and Individual Freedom.  Click here to see more related records.

The “National Conversation on Rights and Justice” in Chicago is presented in part by AT&T, Ford Foundation, Seedlings Foundation, The Chicago Community Trust, Elizabeth Morse Genius Charitable Trust, and the National Archives Foundation.

Past Featured Records

80th Anniversary of V-E Day: End of WWII in Europe
World War II, the deadliest military conflict in history, erupted in Europe on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland.
The War Beneath the Waves: Mary Sears and the Navy’s Oceanographic Unit
During World War II, navigating the Pacific Ocean's perilous tides and currents posed a constant challenge to the U.S. Navy. To update their maps and intelligence, the Navy established an Oceanographic Unit in 1943. The team of scientists was led by Mary Sears, a marine biologist commissioned as a lieutenant junior grade in the women’s division of the Naval Reserve, the WAVES.
Freedmen’s Bureau Marriage Records
After the Civil War, the federal government established a War Department agency to help Americans transition from slavery to freedom. The Freedmen’s Bureau (1865–72) issued rations, operated hospitals and helped establish schools and unite families. It worked to resolve labor disputes and negotiate labor contracts. It also presided over and documented marriages between freed couples.
20th Amendment: A New Inauguration Day
From George Washington’s second term through Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first, inauguration day was generally held on March 4. Without cars or computers, the four months between the election and inauguration served a purpose in the late 18th and 19th centuries. It allowed the President-elect time to settle their affairs and journey to the nation’s capital.
Mr. Santa Claus: Romance of the Postal Service
This holiday featured film is one of a series of silent movies produced by the Post Office Department in 1921. The mini melodrama shows how the postal service helps make a happy Christmas for a boy and his sister when their “Dere Sandy Claws” letter is answered by a young married couple.