A cinematic look at how the civil rights leader Bayard Rustin defied expectations to plan the legendary March on Washington, Rustin, which will be released on Netflix, has just had its first trailer shared, 60 years on from the date of the event.
In the clip from the film, Rustin, played by the Emmy Award winner Colman Domingo, says, “On August 28th, Black, white, young, old, rich, working-class, poor will descend on Washington D.C.” The film will detail the lead-up to the event.
On August 28th 1963, over a quarter of a million people came together at the Lincoln Memorial to watch Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. give his rousing ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, which went down as one of the most iconic moments in history.
Several million watched the event on television, but the story of Rustin has largely been neglected from inclusion in the overall narrative. Netflix calls him “one of the greatest activists and organizers the world has ever known.”
The synopsis for the film reads, “He challenged authority, never apologized for who he was, what he believed or who he desired. And he did not back down. He made history, and in turn, he was forgotten.”
It continues, “Rustin shines a long overdue spotlight on the extraordinary man who, alongside giants like the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Ella Baker, dared to imagine a different world and inspired a movement in a march toward freedom.”
Check out the trailer for Rustin below.
