But it stays with you through your life. It’s a Catholic institution. Walter Naegle was the partner of black gay civil rights pioneer Bayard Rustin, who died in 1987.
And, you know, nobody fainted, nobody gasped, nobody tried to hit me – but I wouldn’t say they went out of their way to be overly friendly either.Q: You say in your documentary Bayard & Me that meeting Rustin on a street corner was “when lightning struck.” Do you feel like you fell in love at first sight?Naegle: Like something out of Hollywood in the 40’s? Early life.
And that kind of reminded me of Bayard, because I know he was very involved in the Poor People’s Campaign in the late 60’s.Naegle: Labor was always a big focus of his life, and one of his most important, if not his most important mentor was a man named A. Philip Randolph who was considered to be one of the most dangerous men in America by J. Edgar Hoover, which was kind of a badge of honor… He was really very important – a lot of young people nowadays don’t know the name, but if we had television in the 30’s and 40’s and 50’s people would be thinking of A. Philip Randolph the way they think of Martin Luther King.Q: I read once that Rustin was jailed for being gay in the 50’s. And I think – I’m not going to credit it all to Bayard, but the whole idea of building coalitions, especially if you’re a small minority of people you gotta get people on your side if you want to get laws passed.Q: I’ve always heard that Harvey Milk emphasized coalition-building too, and he would form alliances with teamsters and different groups. And I wrote my statement, and at that time I said I was homosexual – which I still am, but the term ‘gay’ wasn’t so popularly used back then. and document Harlem history through the stories of people who have Walter Naegle, a Fordham alumnus, was the long-term partner of Bayard Rustin, the civil rights leader who served as chief strategist of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and mentored Dr. King in practical non-violence. Both longtime and more recent Third photo: Bayard Rustin and Walter Naegle, courtesy of Walter Naegle, and Ericka Naegle and Walter Naegle at their StoryCorps interview on March 17, 2015 in New York, NY. The Jesuits are kind of famous for being on the cutting edge of Catholicism, if there is such a thing … Just as I was walking over here, I was thinking that when I was here there was absolutely no discussion of LGBT issues. And he was okay with who he was, he accepted who he was… But back then, if you were gay, you were crucified – maybe I shouldn’t say that at a Catholic college. Q: Do you have any memories of Fordham that particularly stand out?Naegle: You know, I was thinking about that… I wouldn’t say there was any one thing that particularly stands out. So, in some ways we were pushing up against a couple of different barriers, but when you’re in love with somebody you don’t really think about those things until somebody says something to you.Q: What was it like to accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom?Naegle: Well, it was a wonderful experience – just very rewarding, a happy time. Harlem’s past and present history. At that time a lot of it was centered really on human rights. Interviews will be preserved at The Milstein Division, available in a circulating collection, and accessible here at the New York Public Library website. Walter Naegle was the partner of the American Civil Rights leader Bayard Rustin and is executive director of the Bayard Rustin Fund,]which commemorates Rustin's life, values, and legacy. But when you have shared values, and ideals, and philosophies – that’s what really makes a relationship lasting.
experienced it. Rustin died just a year later. Interviews will be preserved at The © The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundation 2013-2016 Walter Naegle.