Colman Domingo Is Civil Rights Activist Bayard Rustin in Netflix's Powerful Rustin Trailer

Colman Domingo shines light on activist Bayard Rustin's importance in the U.S. civil rights movement in the new biopic, in theaters Nov. 3 and streaming Nov. 17

Colman Domingo is bringing attention to a major figure in the American civil rights movement in his latest movie.

On Thursday, Netflix released the new trailer for Rustin, a biopic starring Euphoria actor Domingo, 53, as Bayard Rustin, the man who worked as one of the main organizers for the August 1963 March on Washington.

The trailer opens with Rustin searching for allies in his plans to enact a large-scale march on Washington, D.C., finding hesitancy in older Black activists and enthusiasm from younger people — especially when he announces Martin Luther King Jr. (Aml Ameen) will participate in the march.

Rustin has few allies — activist Roy Wilkins (Chris Rock) suggests Rustin's involvement in the event will put participants in danger. The trailer presents Rustin as controversial at the time, particularly for living as an openly gay man in the early 1960s.

The trailer ends with Rustin hoping that people show up en masse for the March on Washington, which the National Archives identifies as "the largest demonstration for human rights in United States history."

Rustin Key Art
Poster for Netflix's 'Rustin'.

Netflix

The real-life Rustin, who died in 1987 at 75, "challenged authority, never apologized for who he was, what he believed, or who he desired. And he did not back down," as an official synopsis for the movie reads. "He made history, and in turn, he was forgotten."

The movie "shines a long overdue spotlight on the extraordinary man who, alongside giants like the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., Adam Clayton Powell Jr., and Ella Baker, dared to imagine a different world, and inspired a movement in a march toward freedom," according to the synopsis.

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Rustin. Michael Potts as Cleve Robinson, Aml Ameen as Martin Luther King, Chris Rock as NAACP Exec. Dir. Roy Wilkins and Glynn Turman as A Philip Randolph in Rustin.
(L to R) Michael Potts as Cleve Robinson, Aml Ameen as Martin Luther King, Chris Rock as NAACP Exec. Dir. Roy Wilkins and Glynn Turman as A Philip Randolph in 'Rustin'.

David Lee/Netflix

Rustin is directed by George C. Wolfe (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) and written by Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black (Milk). Barack Obama and Michelle Obama worked on the movie as executive producers. Netflix previously released a first trailer for the movie in August, exactly 50 years after the historic August 1963 March on Washington that Rustin helped organize. The event is perhaps best known for King Jr,'s famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

In addition to Domingo, Rock and Ameen, the film also features performances from Glynn Turman, Gus Halper, CCH Pounder, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Johnny Ramey, Michael Potts and Audra McDonald.

Aml Ameen as Martin Luther King and Colman Domingo as Bayard Rustin in Rustin.
Aml Ameen as Martin Luther King and Colman Domingo as Bayard Rustin in 'Rustin'.

Parrish Lewis/Netflix

The National Archives credits Rustin and a staff of 200 volunteers with organizing the March on Washington in just two months, even as politicians like then-South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond publicly denounced him on the U.S. Senate floor in the weeks leading to the event, per The Washington Post.

Rustin is in select theaters Nov. 3 and will begin streaming on Netflix Nov. 17.

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