A pacifist, Rustin protested World War II by resisting the draft and, as a result, was imprisoned in 1944 as a conscientious objector. After his release in 1946, Rustin became a major figure for ...

His vision of nonviolence was breathtakingly broad. He was a civil rights activist, a labor unionist, a socialist, a pacifist and, later in life, a gay rights advocate.