Lost prophet Book

I've been curious about Bayard Rustin for awhile, so when I ran across Lost Prophet: the life and times of Bayard Rustin of course I had to read it. I knew of him as an organizer with the civil rights movement that Martin Luther King, Jr. distanced himself from because of his past involvement with the communist party & his homosexuality.

I'm always surprised, and I'm not sure why, when I read about a figure I consider heroic to find out the depth and length of their committment to something.

Rustin was involved in anti-war activism and civil rights work from the 1930s until he died in the 80s, and served a two-year prison term in the 1940s for refusing to serve in the armed forces during World War II.

He participated in a "journey of reconciliation" in 1947 to test the Supreme Court ruling declaring segregation on interstate transport illegal, prefiguring the fight in Montgomery almost 10 years later.

He was also involved internationally in the peace movement and with the fight against colonialism in Africa.

And he was a proud out gay man when no one was out of the closet. This cost him, particularly when he was arrested on a morals charge in the 50s. He did a lot of behind the scenes work because his homosexuality made him (and the organizations he worked with) vulnerable to politcally motivated attacks.