Movie Review: 'Rustin' with an outstanding Colman Domingo is a terrific look at March on Washington

11.1.23
Mark Kennedy, AP Entertainment & New Haven Register

Left: Glynn Turman as A Philip Randolph, Right: Colman Domingo as Bayard Rustin, Photo: David Lee/Netflix via AP

The 1963 March on Washington drew an estimated 250,000 people from across the country — the largest march at that point in American history — and was the place where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech.

Aml Ameen as Martin Luther King Jr. and Colman Domingo as Bayard Rustin, Photo: Parrish Lewis/Netflix © 2023

It likely wouldn't have happened without the work of a master strategist: Bayard Rustin, a gay Black socialist and pacifist-activist from Pennsylvania, whose close friendship with King was the engine in the early days of the Civil Rights Movement.

A scene from "Rustin," Photo: David Lee/Netflix via AP

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

Line from "Rustin" portrayed by Coleman Domingo

“Rustin” is more than just the public-facing story of how the March on Washington came about. It’s also a portrait of a man who has to hide his sexuality. If it was widely known, his career, the march and maybe even the Civil Rights Movement itself could be at risk.

Domingo shows the immense pressures faced by being a religiously-raised, Black gay man in the racist and homophobic 1960s, enough psychic forces to tear a man apart.