The White House today announced Bayard Rustin, the late civil and human rights advocate will be posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. An aide and confidant to Dr. Martin Luther King, Rustin was the main organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, an iconic moment in the history of our nation. HRC President Chad Griffin wrote President Obama a letter earlier this year urging him to posthumously grant the medal to Rustin. Griffin today made the following statement:
“Bayard Rustin’s contributions to the American civil rights movement remain paramount to its successes to this day,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “His role in the fight for civil rights of African-Americans is all the more admirable because he made it as a gay man, experiencing prejudice not just because of his race, but because of his sexual orientation as well.”
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is an award bestowed by the President of the United States and is—along with the comparable Congressional Gold Medal bestowed by an act of U.S. Congress—the highest civilian award in the United States. It recognizes those individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors”.
Bayard Rustin to be Posthumously Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom | Human Rights Campaign
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