The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    67 Years Later, Bayard Pardoned Posthumously

    By rmrd0000 on Wed, 02/05/2020 - 4:59pm |

    He was a chief organizer of the 1963 March on Washington, a crucial strategist on nonviolent tactics and an adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

    Bayard Rustin was also openly gay. And in 1953, he was arrested for having consensual sex with men in Pasadena, Calif. The “morals charge,” which was often used to target gay people in those years, remained a stain on his record and nearly sidelined him from the movement he helped create.

    On Wednesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) issued a posthumous pardon for Rustin.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/02/05/bayard-rustin-newsom-pardon/

    Comments

    Thanks. Good for Newsom.

    Brings back   memories . I stretched my $40/week 1954 salary by sharing a flat with a gay guy.  Worrying some of his friends : " giving hostages to  fortune."

    The gay bar was unmarked. On a  mixed street , warehouses and residential. When there was no one around enter one particular  anonymous doorway ,with a  small letter N .  A dark vestibule  , a stair way leading up to other floors , who knows . On the ground floor ,enter an of course unmarked door. The " Napolean" the gay bar

    Initially I was vouched for by someone , probably my flat mate. After that , just a face in the crowd.

    And it was always crowded


    by Flavius on Mon, 02/10/2020 - 8:41am

    That's cuz every hour's happy hour.


    by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 02/10/2020 - 10:51am

    wow you were bonafide 1950's demi-monde, living the "Tobacco Road" life....comes to mind there were probably FBI agents at that bar...


    by artappraiser on Mon, 02/10/2020 - 4:27pm

    Yeah, easy to spot - they wore wingtips with their nylons.


    by PeraclesPlease on Mon, 02/10/2020 - 4:29pm