About the Script

About Bayard Rustin

Written By Q. Terah Jackson

When Bayard Rustin, a brilliant but contentious political strategist, is ostracized from the civil rights movement for being gay, he endures personal and public shame to advance the career of his promising protégé, Martin Luther King, Jr.

Honors & Awards

• Film Independent - Screenwriters Lab 2015
• AFI Alumni Script Reading Series 2014
• Writers' Guild of America Feature Access Project Honoree 2014
• Film Independent Project Involve Fellow 2014
• Academy Nicholl Fellowship Top 50 Screenplays 2013

Inspiration for COUNTER

Based on the feature film screenplay, Jackson wrote COUNTER, a short film script about a young Bayard Rustin staging a solo-sit-in at a 1940's diner.  This film was produced through Film Independent's Project Involve Program. 

• Learn more about COUNTER.
• Learn more about Film Independent. 

Civil Rights Activist (1912–1987)

"Combining non-violent resistance with organizational skills, he was a key adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. Though he was arrested several times for his own civil disobedience and open homosexuality, he continued to fight for equality. He died in New York City on August 24, 1987." - Biography.com

Resources

Learn about Rustin, his legacy, and how to take action for justice.

• Brother Outsider, Documentary Film
• Lost Prophet by John D'Emillio 
• Bayard Rustin: Troubles I've Seen: A Biography by Jervis Anderson
• Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement by Daniel Levine
• American in the King Years Series by Taylor Branch
• Time on Two Crosses edited by Devon W. Carbado and Donald Weise
• I Must Resist edited by Michael G. Long
• Down the Line by Bayard Rustin and C Vann Woodward
• FBI Records: the Vault

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