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Bayard Rustin (March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was a US American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, pacifism and non-violence, and LGBT rights. He was a leading activist and strategist of the civil-rights movement from 1947–1968, helping to initiate a 1947 Freedom Ride to challenge with civil disobedience racial segregation on interstate busing. He recognized Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s leadership, and helped to organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to strengthen King's leadership; Rustin promoted the philosophy of nonviolence and the practices of nonviolent resistance, which he had observed while working with Gandhi's movement in India. He was the chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where Dr. King delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech advocating racial harmony. (more...)