Screening Time: Saturday, May 3, 9:00 PM, Charles Theatre 3

Director: Nancy Kates and Bennett Singer

Cast: Bayard Rustin, Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Jackson, Eleanor Holmes Norton

Country: U.S.
Year: 2002
Running Time: 84 minutes
Format: Beta SP

Long before Martin Luther King, Jr. became a national figure, Bayard Rustin was a pioneering crusader for racial justice. With a staunch commitment to pacifism and advocacy of Gandhian nonviolent protest, Rustin was a key figure and crucial shaping force of the Civil Rights movement. But Rustin was also seen as a political liability. He was openly gay, and as a result, he was frequently shunned by the very Civil Rights movement he helped to create.

Using interviews and rare archival footage, Brother Outsider documents Rustin’s sixty-year career as an activist. Forced into the background because of his homosexuality, his contributions are often slighted in the historical record. While most Americans are familiar with Dr. King’s magnificent “I Have a Dream” speech that capped the historic March on Washington in 1963, relatively few are probably aware that it was Rustin who organized the march. Brother Outsider chronicles an amazing, controversial, and uncompromising life, and sheds new light on this overlooked giant of American history.

--Dan Krovich

Presented By: Bennett Singer

Bennett Singer, a New York based filmmaker and book editor, has served as producer or associate producer of a number of acclaimed PBS series, including Eyes on the Prize II, With God on Our Side, and The Question of Equality. He is executive editor of TIME Magazine’s education program; editor of 42 Up, the companion book to Michael Apted’s famed documentary series; and co-author of The Student Body, a novel of suspense published by Random House.