Civil rights activist Rachelle Horowitz receives AFT’s Bayard Rustin Human Rights Award

Civil rights activist and former AFT Political Director Rachelle Horowitz received the AFT Bayard Rustin Human Rights Award today at the AFT convention in Houston. 

Horowitz, who started her work with civil rights giant Bayard Rustin when she was just 17, was a key strategist and the transportation director for the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and assisted with organizing the historic Freedom Summer voter registration drive in 1965. She served as the AFT’s first political director from 1974 to 1995. Rustin’s partner, Walter Naegle, was present at the award presentation and said that by going from protest to politics, Horowitz truly honored Rustin’s evolution as an activist.

Horowitz paid homage to Rustin, saying she was truly humbled to receive the award because she knows “how difficult it is to live up to the ideals of Bayard Rustin.” AFT President Randi Weingarten told Horowitz, “It is our honor to honor you.”

[Melanie Boyer, photo credit Suzannah Hoover]