In 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It was a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement and one of the most important events in American history. Behind it all, organizing and running the march itself, was activist, pacifist and Quaker Bayard Rustin.

Rustin was openly gay during a time when the twin demons of homophobia and racism haunted both the African American civil rights movement and the LGBTQ community’s struggle for equality. This fact often slowed but never stopped his pursuit of peace and equality.

Thursday, March 17, marked the ninety-ninth anniversary of Rustin’s birth. Though his struggle nears the century mark, his activism, non-violence, and compassion lives on here at Guilford with the creation of the Bayard Rustin Center for LGBTQA Activism, Education and Reconciliation.

Formerly known as the Queer and Allied Resource Center (QuARC), the Bayard Rustin Center embodies the ideals and causes that he dedicated his life to. The center was renamed to encompass its diverse purposes and make the space more accessible to those interested in becoming involved in or informed about civil rights activism.

Martha Lang, visiting assistant professor for sociology and anthropology, was the driving force behind the name change. The center was rededicated in Bayard’s name not only as a symbol, but also to reinvigorate and refocus the sense of activism in Guilford’s LGBTQ community.

For Rustin, the Civil Rights and LGBTQ movements were deeply connected. The renaming of the PRIDE office asks the Guilford community to recognize the interconnectedness of the struggles for peace, civil rights, and environmental and social justice.

No one is more deserving of the recognition that the name change provides. Rustin’s life was dedicated to social justice causes, from civil rights in the U.S. to anti-imperialism abroad. His unswerving adherence to pacifism, his upholding and progression of nonviolent methods of protest, and his dedication to seeing beyond the politics of identity into the human heart of struggles for equality all make him the ideal symbol for the causes of Guilford College.

This is a small part of the renown that Rustin deserves as a Quaker social justice and peace activist. As a college community, Guilfordians feel responsible for honoring those that make notable contributions to the world and to the Quaker community. Until now, Rustin’s legacy of activism has not been celebrated as it should be. Guilford PRIDE and Lang have taken a step in the right direction with the creation of the Bayard Rustin Center, and the reinvigoration of community in the LGBTQ rights movement.