In the first ten minutes of Steven Spielberg's LINCOLN, we see Daniel Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln talking to two Black soldiers on a Civil War battlefield. One of those soldiers was played by actor Colman Domingo. For his performance as Lincoln in that 2012 release, Daniel Day-Lewis won his third Oscar for Best Actor, Today, Colman Domingo is receiving well-deserved Best Actor Oscar buzz for his lead performance in a film that is also a biopic.
Domingo plays the brilliant, influential and greatly overlooked mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Bayard Rustin was called "the Architect of the March on Washington" headed by Dr. King in 1963. That's where King made his historic "I have a dream" speech.
I am admittedly old enough to recall being a little boy and watching the March on Washington with my parents when it was a live telecast on CBS. I remember seeing tall, slim Bayard Rustin with his salt and pepper hair and wearing horn-rimmed glasses speak forcefully and passionately and then stand behind Dr. King. In my adult years, I learned that he was highly-educated, a Quaker, a singer of spirituals who had recorded albums and performed on Broadway, an outspoken Civil Rights activist -- and an openly gay man in the days when one could be arrested for simply having a cocktail in a gay bar. When I learned that fact, I realized why the famous Rustin became a very minor character -- if seen at all -- in modern-day biopics about Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. For all his achievements and contributions, Rustin had been pushed into the shadows because of his sexuality. Back in July 2020, I blogged a post about our need for a Bayard Rustin biopic. Well...now we have one, And it was worth waiting for. Barack and Michelle Obama are executive producers. It was directed by George C. Wolfe. Actor Colman Domingo gives an extraordinary performance as the controversial and complicated American activist. Domingo commands the screen and seems to have been born to play Bayard Rustin. He did his homework extremely well. Also, he's made Hollywood history. He is an openly gay Black actor playing an openly gay Black historical figure.RUSTIN is in theaters and now on Netflix. This is a remarkable, stirring must-see biopic.
Glynn Turman, Jeffrey Wright, CCH Pounder and, in a dramatic role, Chris Rock co-star. This is a film that our LGBTQ community needs to see and support. As for Mr. Colman Domingo, I am so proud of him and I add to the praise that he deserves to be an Oscar nominee for Best Actor.
I didn't hear about your death until today, but may you rest in peace, Bobby. I only discovered your works last year, but I hope more people show you the respect that you rightfully deserve. From your work at VH1 and beyond, the world will be a worse place without you in it. Thank you for everything. <3
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