Colman Domingo is ‘Rustin’ in a new biopic on the Black queer civil rights activist

Marking the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Netflix has dropped the first trailer for the forthcoming biopic of the historic event’s organizer, Bayard Rustin. West Philly native Colman Domingo stars in Rustin, playing the Black queer civil rights activist who was born and raised in West Chester,.

The film, directed by George C. Wolfe and executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama, will be released in select theaters Nov. 3 before landing on Netflix on Nov. 17.

Rustin was a key figure in the civil rights movement. He promoted nonviolence, which was rooted in his Quaker upbringing. His grandparents, Janifer and Julia Rustin, raised him and his 11 siblings in the Philadelphia suburb, in a home where Black community leaders including W.E.B. Du Bois and Mary McLeod Bethune visited, thanks to his grandmother’s participation in the NAACP.

He graduated from West Chester High School before briefly attending Cheyney State Teachers College and other colleges. He later created the first of the Freedom Rides and cofounded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King, Jr.

Rustin examines his efforts to put together the legendary March on Washington in less than two months while navigating homophobia from his fellow activists. Though Rustin was the lead organizer who was essential to King’s movement, he was also sidelined, ridiculed, and denigrated by some organizers for his sexuality.

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In the trailer, Rep. Adam Clayton Powell (played by Jeffrey Wright) tells Rustin: “Your mere presence would derail the fight for racial justice in this country a good 10, 15 years.” Rustin replies, “On the day that I was born Black, I was also born a homosexual … They either believe in freedom and justice for all, or they do not.”

In Rustin, Domingo, a queer Black man, plays his first leading role in a feature film. Aside from sharing Philadelphia-area roots, both Domingo and Rustin share a love for musical theater. Domingo wrote the book for Summer: The Donna Summer Musical and Rustin once sang with Paul Robeson on Broadway.