Bayard Rustin, born March 17, 1912, is best remembered as the organizer of the 19 organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. He helped mold Martin Luther King, Jr. into the symbol of peace and nonviolence using Gandhi's protest techniques. However, despite these achievements, he was often silenced, threatened, arrested, beaten, imprisoned and fined because he was an openly gay man in a fiercely homophobic era. He stands at the [confluence of the great struggles for civil, legal and human rights by African Americans and lesbian and gay Americans. ] He arrived to help MLK, Jr. in Alabama, he introduced King to Gandhi's teachings and continued writing publicity materials and organizing carpools. In 1960, Rep. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. threatened to tell the press that King and Rustin were gay lovers if King did not drop Rustin and King dropped Rustin and put distance between them, but despite this low point, Rustin still put the movement ahead of this slight. In 1962, A. Philip Randolph recruited Rustin and the two begin making plans for the 1963 march. Despite the progress between Randolph, Rustin and King, who, Rustin feared interference from Washington police and the FBI, and it came to a head when Strom Thurmond of South Carolina personally attacked Rustin, reading from his FBI file outing Rustin as a gay ex-communist. This did not slow him down, despite tensions rising in every direction. The march turned out to be a success, an estimated 300,000 people marched towards Washington. He continued to advocate for civiil rights after the march and during the 1980s, he opened up publicly about his sexuality that he had sublimated since the 1950's. He also bought the AIDs crisis to the NAACP's attention, hoping that this and his coming out would allow more and more to 'come out' and be their authentic selves. He passed away 4 days shy of the march's 24th anniversary on August 24, 1987.