I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1537 
To direct the Postmaster General to issue a forever stamp depicting Bayard 
Rustin, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 5, 2019 
Ms. NORTON introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Oversight and Reform 
A BILL 
To direct the Postmaster General to issue a forever stamp 
depicting Bayard Rustin, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Bayard Rustin Stamp 
Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Bayard Rustin was born on March 17, 
1912, and was raised by his grandparents in West 
Chester, Pennsylvania. From a young age, Rustin 
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learned to prioritize the values of nonviolence and 
peacekeeping from his grandparents’ Quaker faith, 
and would continue to build these values in his life 
as a civil rights movement leader. 
(2) Rustin attended City College of New York, 
where he joined a progressive club that aimed to 
remedy racial issues during turbulent times. His 
time with the club was short lived, but it inspired 
him to join the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an or-
ganization that became a champion for labor rights, 
equality, and world peace. 
(3) His time with the Fellowship of Reconcili-
ation prompted Rustin to become a leader in the 
1947 ‘‘Journey to Reconciliation’’, an event where 
White and Black people across the South rode buses 
together to challenge segregation laws, a precursor 
to the Freedom Rides. 
(4) Rustin was an advisor in Martin Luther 
King, Jr.’s inner circle as he advocated pacifism and 
nonviolence for achieving equal treatment for Afri-
can Americans. 
(5) Rustin used his brilliant strategic handling 
of the use of aggressive, peaceful action in the civil 
rights movement and throughout his life as an activ-
ist. 
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(6) His most important role was as the chief or-
ganizer of the 1963 March on Washington, DC, the 
largest demonstration ever organized at the time, in 
which a quarter of a million people turned out to de-
mand civil rights for African Americans. 
(7) In the years after the civil rights movement, 
Rustin used his background as a gay man to inspire 
others to advocate for and to achieve LGBT rights. 
(8) Rustin remained a strategist and public 
speaker for workers’ rights movements, including co- 
founding the A. Philip Randolph Institute for Black 
trade union members. 
(9) Rustin committed to promoting social good 
and advocating for the disenfranchised until his 
death in 1987. 
SEC. 3. BAYARD RUSTIN STAMP. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—In order to honor the life and 
work of Bayard Rustin, a leader in the civil rights move-
ment, the Postmaster General shall provide for the 
issuance of a forever stamp suitable for that purpose that 
depicts Bayard Rustin. 
(b) DEFINITION OF DEFINITIVE STAMP.—For the 
purposes of this Act, the term ‘‘forever stamp’’ means a 
definitive stamp that— 
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(1) meets the postage required for first-class 
mail up to one ounce in weight; and 
(2) retains full validity for that purpose even if 
the rate of that postage is later increased. 
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The stamp described in sub-
section (a) shall be issued as soon as practicable after the 
date of the enactment of this Act. 
Æ 
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