A biography that focuses on Rustin’s work with the Black civil rights movement, but that also notes “Some people treated Bayard unfairly because he was gay, but that did not stop him.” There is no mention of his later work speaking for gay rights or of how standing up for one part of his identity compelled him to speak up for the other, as this History article explains. Still, the fact that the text says he was gay is a step forward in picture book biographies of him.
Two more recent picture-book biographies, A Song for the Unsung: Bayard Rustin, the Man Behind the 1963 March on Washington and Unstoppable: How Bayard Rustin Organized the 1963 March on Washington, feel like more engaging portraits of the man and speak further about his intersecting Black and gay identities, but sit at the older end of the picture-book age range in terms of vocabulary complexity. For younger readers, Leaders Like Us: Bayard Rustin, while somewhat drier, may be a good starting point.
