AKRON, Ohio — In one Akron community, the work of an iconic Civil Rights activist is carried on by people like Charles Graise, the Bayard Rustin LGTBQ+ Resource Center Program Director.
“It’s kind of my way to give back because, like I tell them all the time, this place saved my life,” said Graise. “As a young man who never really felt like he had a place, until I found this place, it means everything to me; to see his fight paying off.”
Graise is talking about Bayard Rustin, an activist, prominent leader in the Civil Rights movement, and an openly black gay man.
“It was hard and dangerous to come out as a black man during that time,” said Graise.
Still, Bayard Rustin advocated for socialism, nonviolence and gay rights by helping to initiate the 1961 Freedom Riders Movement against racial segregation.
Rustin even worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as the Chief Organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
“I can’t imagine the things that they had to go through to get what we deserved as a people,” said Bayard Rustin LGTBQ+ Resource Center Outreach Administrator Ares Paige.
Because of Rustin’s efforts, Graise said they felt a special calling to name their center in honor of him.
“His fight is exactly what we’re fighting for: inclusion, acceptance just killing the stigma and helping the community to understand that we’re just people,” said Graise.
Now serving as the only drop-in center in Northeast Ohio that specifically targets LGBTQ communities of color, Graise said carrying Bayard Rustin’s namesake is especially important.
“Our problems are a little unique to us,” said Graise. “The black community is not as accepting of LGBTQ lifestyles and so, those kids end up homeless more often than not or at least displaced.”
But Page said their mission to provide resources like housing for youth, mental health referrals and help to make people feel welcomed and included is what keeps Bayard Rustin’s legacy going.
“I don’t think it’s ever going to stop. As long as, there’s someone out there oppressing the human rights of others, that legacy is going to continue,” said Page.
As the fight continues, Page feels if their center and the community as a whole move with the spirit Bayard Rustin showed, then progress will be made.
“There’s hope to help us finish what we started back then,” said Page.
