February 18, 2026

The Man Who Taught Nonviolence to Martin Luther King Jr.

Al Letson revisits a story about civil rights activist Bayard Rustin that he produced 16 years ago for Black History Month.

A black-and-white photograph of two middle-aged African American men in suits and ties walking side by side down a city sidewalk.

Bayard Rustin (right) and the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. leave the Montgomery County Courthouse in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1956. The civil rights leaders, among many others, were arraigned after protesting segregated busing in the state.Gene Herrick/AP

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Back in February 2010, the radio show State of the Re:Union, created by Al Letson, produced an award-winning episode looking at civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. The episode was called “Who Is This Man?” because while Rustin was not well known, his work supported the likes of Martin Luther King Jr.

Rustin was a man with a number of seemingly incompatible labels: Black, gay, Quaker—identifications that served to earn him as many detractors as admirers. Although he had numerous passions and pursuits, his most transformative act, one that certainly changed the course of American history, was to counsel MLK on the use of nonviolent resistance.

Rustin also helped engineer the 1963 March on Washington and frame the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott. With such lofty achievements, why isn’t Rustin considered an icon of both civil rights and humanity? How could a person who changed the course of American history not be a household name? Was he purposely kept out of the history books?

This week on More To The Story, we bring you an important piece for Black History Month, a reflection on Rustin.

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