Title Page | Collection Summary | Biographical/Organizational Note | Scope and Content | Arrangement
Biographical Note
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1912, Mar. 17 | Born, West Chester, Pa. |
| 1930-1931 | Attended Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, Ohio |
| 1931-1933 | Attended Cheyney State College, Cheyney, Pa. |
| 1933-1935 | Moved to Harlem and attended City College of New York, New York, N.Y.; earned tuition by singing backup for Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter |
| 1938-1941 | Joined Young Communist League; recruited youths while touring with singer Josh White; broke with the league over political differences |
| 1941 | Youth organizer, A. Philip Randolph March on Washington First field secretary, Congress of Racial Equality |
| 1941-1953 | Race relations secretary, Fellowship of Reconciliation |
| 1942 | Went to California and helped protect the property of Japanese-Americans who were placed in work camps during World War II |
| 1943-1945 | Refused military service in World War II on grounds of conscientious objection; sentenced to twenty-eight months in Lewisburg Prison, Ashley, Ky. |
| 1945 | Chairman, Free India Committee |
| 1947 | Participated in the Journey of Reconciliation, the first freedom ride that tested the enforcement of a new law prohibiting discrimination in interstate travel; arrested in North Carolina and sentenced to thirty days on a chain gang |
| 1948 | Attended the World Pacifist meeting in India; met with Jawaharlal Nehru and other leaders Helped organize the Aldermaston marches for the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament movement in England |
| 1951 | Went to West Africa and worked with future Ghanian prime minister Kwame Nkrumah and Nigerian president Nnamdi Azikiwe on the Committee to Support Africa |
| 1952-1953 | Director, Committee Against Discrimination in the Armed Forces |
| 1953-1955 | Executive secretary, War Resisters League |
| 1955 | Invited by Martin Luther King, Jr., to assist in organizing bus boycotts in Montgomery, Ala. |
| 1956 | Devised organizational plans for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; became special assistant to Martin Luther King, Jr. |
| 1957 | Coordinated Prayer Pilgrimage to Washington for civil rights, Washington, D.C. |
| 1958-1959 | Director, Youth Marches for Integrated Schools |
| 1963 | Deputy director, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Washington, D.C. |
| 1964 | Director, New York City school boycott against decentralization, New York, N.Y. |
| 1966 | Received Eleanor Roosevelt Award, Trade Union Leadership Council |
| 1966-1979 | President, A. Philip Randolph Institute |
| 1968 | Director, Memphis sanitation workers' strike in support of the right to organize, Memphis, Tenn. |
| 1971 | Published Down the Line: The Collected Writings of Bayard Rustin (Chicago, Ill.: Quadrangle Books, Inc. 349 pp.) Received John F. Kennedy Award, National Council of Jewish Women |
| 1975 | Formed Black Americans to Support Israel Committee |
| 1976 | Published Strategies for Freedom: The Changing Patterns of Black Protest (New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press. 78 pp.) |
| 1977 | Helped establish the Black Leadership Forum |
| 1978 | Chairman, Executive Committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights |
| 1979-1987 | Chairman of the board, A. Philip Randolph Institute |
| 1980 | Received Murray-Green-Meany Award, A.F.L.-C.I.O. |
| 1987, Aug. 24 | Died, New York, N.Y. |