This news article, published by the Los Angeles Times in January 1953, reports on Bayard Rustin’s arrest and conviction in Pasadena, California, for having sex with other men. While “homosexual conduct” was a crime for much of the 20th century, the laws against it were enforced much more aggressively during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. This source appears as it was originally written, including the use of the N-word. This document has not been edited to reflect the reality of the dehumanizing power and frequency with which the term has been used historically.
Pasadena Municipal Judge Burion Noble yesterday sentenced Bayard Rustin, 40-year-old Negro lecturer, to 60 days in the County Jail on a morals charge. Rustin’s attorney, Charles Holloper, failed in an appeal to free his client on the promise that he would leave this State and return to his home in New York.
Rustin pleaded guilty to the charge. He had been arrested by Pasadena police early Thursday in company with two men in an automobile parked near the Green Hotel. The other men, Marvin W. Long, 23, of Monterey Park, and Louie Buono, 23, of Rosemead, were given similar sentences. A delegation of three members of the American Friends Society appeared in court, but did not testify in Rustin’s behalf.
Rustin had been scheduled to address the latter group at the Pasadena First Methodist Church yesterday. Shortly before his arrest, Rustin spoke on world peace before the American Society of University Women at the Pasadena Athletic Club.
Citation: “Lecturer Sentenced to Jail on Morals Charge.” Los Angeles Times, January 23, 1953.
At the time of Bayard Rustin’s 1953 arrest, he was traveling the country as an organizer for the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). The FOR is a pacifist organization that formed in opposition to World War I and advocates for nonviolence. Bayard Rustin was hired to work for the FOR in 1941 and helped them expand their focus to include working against racism. In this source, historian John D’Emilio explains how FOR responded to Rustin’s arrest. It quotes at length from a statement FOR sent to their members and other pacifists, explaining what had occurred.
On Wednesday [one week after Rustin’s 1953 arrest], the FOR released a lengthy statement. “To our great sorrow,” it began, “Bayard Rustin was convicted on a ‘morals charge’ (homosexual) and sentenced to 60 days in the Los Angeles County Jail on January 23, 1953. As of that date, and at his own suggestion, his service as an FOR staff member terminated.” The statement then summarized the FOR’s history with Rustin’s “problem”: how it did not become known until he had been on the staff for some time; how it was seriously aggravated by his wartime incarceration; how the FOR had sought to provide him with counsel so his “exceptional gifts” might be used in the cause of peace and racial justice; and how it was always made clear to him that he would have to exercise “rigorous discipline” if he expected to stay on staff. “Until the unhappy recent event,” it continued, “the situation seemed to be moving along these lines . . . Bayard was growing spiritually as well as intellectually and proving a powerful exponent of nonviolence.” When rumors arose, “as happened from time to time,” the staff investigated and found that the story arose from an earlier period. “We are grateful to Bayard,” the statement concluded, “for the many services he has rendered, and sorrow with him over the fact that he is not able to continue as an FOR member.”
The FOR distributed the statement widely among pacifists. In doing so, it ensured that a story buried deep within the local Southern California press became common knowledge among the circles of people who mattered most to Rustin. Thus ended his dozen years of service to a Christian organization dedicated to peace and social justice.
Citation: John D’Emilio, Lost Prophet: the Life and Times of Bayard Rustin, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004); FORP (Fellowship of Reconciliation Papers, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA) Series D, Box 1, Folder 2.