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Bayard Rustin, deputy director of the March on Washington, speaks to the crowd of marchers from the Lincoln Memorial. August 28, 1963
Credit: Image donated by Corbis-Bettmann
After the end of World War II, Bayard Rustin continued to be active in the African American struggle for civil rights. In 1947, he was one of twelve activists to participate in the Journey of Reconciliation, a "freedom ride" through the South draw attention to segregation on interstate buses. A major behind-the-scenes organizer of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, Rustin was also the chief organizer of the March on Washington, at which Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his timeless "I Have A Dream Speech."