Meet Me Behind The Mall - - Rustin (2023, USA, Color, 106 min) - - 31 January 2025

Recommended. A successful gay, Black, Quaker, human rights activist who survived the 50s and 60s in America must have a place in history. Bayard Rustin (Oscar^©-nominated and gay himself, Colman Domingo, Selma) did survive and thrived in the Civil Rights Movement, despite earning the enmity of both Congressman Adam Clayton Powell (Jeffery Wright, American Fiction) and NAACP Executive Secretary Roy Wilkins (Chris Rock, Amsterdam). Fortunately, he had friends, including Dr. Martin Luther King (Aml Ameen, Beyond the Lights) and, once the police outed him, a refusal to express shame over his sexuality. Rustin, the movie, focusses on his finest hour, setting up the 1963 March on Washington, including King's opportunity for the "I Have a Dream" speech. All this said, we don't learn a lot about Rustin's youth and work after the march, including AIDS and peace activism but this is an excellent history of a man and his time.