After announcing eight months ago that Colman Domingo would play the often-forgotten civil rights leader Bayard Rustin in Netflix’s upcoming biopic, the streaming service has now published a first peek image to tease Domingo’s portrayal of the historical figure. The first feature film from Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground will be released in 2023, and it will be directed by George C. Wolfe, who has won five Tony Awards. Foregrounded in Rustin is the criminally underestimated Bayard Rustin, the architect of the historic March on Washington in 1963 that forever altered the trajectory of the civil rights movement in the United States.
He was a trusted counsellor to Dr Martin Luther King, Jr., and was instrumental in the fight for global democracy and equal rights, yet he is mostly forgotten by history since he is a homosexual Black man. He advocated nonviolence so often that Martin Luther King Jr. said of Bayard Rustin: “We are totally dedicated to the approach of nonviolence in our battle, and we are certain that Bayard’s expertness and devotion in this field will be of inestimable service.”
Prior to his death in 1987, he worked to raise the NAACP’s profile within the LGBTQ+ community. This picture gives you a glimpse at a scene from Netflix’s Bayard Rustin biopic.
The cast of Rustin has increased substantially since it was initially announced. In addition to Domingo, the cast includes Glynn Turman as politician A. Philip Randolph, Audra McDonald as activist Ella Baker, and Chris Rock as former NAACP head Roy Wilkins. Aml Ameen, Gus Halper, Johnny Ramey, CCH Pounder, Michael Potts, Carra Patterson, Adrienne Warren, Bill Irwin, Jeffrey Wright, Lilli Kay, Jordan-Amanda Hall, Jakeem Dante Powell, Ayana Workman, Grantham Coleman, Jamilah Nadege Rosemond, Jules Latimer, Maxwell Whittington-Cooper, Frank Harts, and Kevin Mambo round out the cast. Since Higher Ground is leading the charge for the civil rights icon Bayard Rustin, it is only natural that Obama posthumously bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom upon him in 2013. The Obamas aren’t the only ones involved as executive producers; Higher Ground’s Mark R. Wright and Alex G. Scott, as well as Bruce Cohen and Tonia Davis, are all in on it, too.
Several members of the production staff, including Domingo and Turman, were carried over from Wolfe’s previous directorial attempt, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Since releasing their first feature-length documentary, American Factory, in 2019, Higher Ground has been working tirelessly to create thought-provoking, varied media. Their most recent film, Descendant, a documentary, was a joint effort with Two One Five Entertainment, which is headed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson and Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter, to chronicle the tale of a small village in Alabama known as Africatown. After a successful run at film festivals, it was picked up by Netflix early this year. A 2023 release date has been set for Rustin.