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Bayard Rustin

Bayard Rustin (March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was an American political activist, a prominent leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. Rustin was the principal organizer of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.

Rustin worked in 1941 with A. Philip Randolph on the March on Washington Movement to press for an end to racial discrimination in the military and defense employment. Rustin later organized Freedom Rides, and helped to organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to strengthen Martin Luther King Jr.'s leadership; he taught King about non-violence. Rustin worked alongside Ella Baker, a co-director of the Crusade for Citizenship, in 1954; and before the Montgomery bus boycott, he helped organize a group called "In Friendship" to provide material and legal assistance to people threatened with eviction from their tenant farms and homes. Rustin became the head of the AFL–CIO's A. Philip Randolph Institute, which promoted the integration of formerly all-white unions and promoted the unionization of African Americans. During the 1970s and 1980s, Rustin served on many humanitarian missions, such as aiding refugees from Vietnam and Cambodia.

Rustin was a gay man and, due to criticism over his sexuality, usually advised other civil rights leaders from behind the scenes. During the 1980s, he became a public advocate on behalf of gay causes, speaking at events as an activist and supporter of human rights.

Later in life, while still devoted to securing workers' rights, Rustin joined other union leaders in aligning with ideological neoconservatism, earning posthumous praise from President Ronald Reagan. On November 20, 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Early life and education
Rustin was born in 1912 in West Chester, Pennsylvania, to Florence Rustin and Archie Hopkins, but raised by his maternal grandparents, Julia (Davis) and Janifer Rustin, as the ninth of their twelve children; growing up he believed his biological mother was his older sister. His grandparents were relatively wealthy local caterers who raised Rustin in a large house. Julia Rustin was a Quaker, although she attended her husband's African Methodist Episcopal Church. She was also a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). NAACP leaders such as W.E.B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson were frequent guests in the Rustin home. With these influences in his early life, in his youth Rustin campaigned against racially discriminatory Jim Crow laws.

One of the first documented realizations Rustin had of his sexuality was when he mentioned to his grandmother that he preferred to spend time with males rather than females. She responded, "I suppose that's what you need to do".

In 1932, Rustin entered Wilberforce College, a historically black college in Ohio operated by the AME Church. Rustin was active in a number of campus organizations, including the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. He was expelled from Wilberforce in 1936 after organizing a strike, and later attended Cheyney State Teachers College (now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania). Cheyney honored Rustin with a posthumous Doctor of Humane Letters degree at its 2013 commencement.

After completing an activist training program conducted by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Rustin moved to Harlem in 1937 and began studying at City College of New York. There he became involved in efforts to defend and free the Scottsboro Boys, nine young black men in Alabama who were accused of raping two white women. He joined the Young Communist League in 1936, and left in 1941 after the Communist Party USA reversed its anti-war policy in response to Nazi Germany's invasion of the USSR. This conflicted with Rustin's anti-war stance. Soon after arriving in New York City, he became a member of Fifteenth Street Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).

Rustin was an accomplished tenor vocalist, an asset that earned him admission to both Wilberforce University and Cheyney State Teachers College with music scholarships. In 1939, he was in the chorus of the short-lived Broadway musical John Henry that starred Paul Robeson. Blues singer Josh White was also a cast member and later invited Rustin to join his gospel and vocal harmony group Josh White and the Carolinians, with whom he made several recordings. With this opportunity, Rustin became a regular performer at the Café Society nightclub in Greenwich Village, widening his social and intellectual contacts. A few albums on Fellowship Records featuring his singing, such as Bayard Rustin Sings a Program of Spirituals, were produced from the 1950s through the 1970s.

Evolving affiliations
At the direction of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) and its members, including Rustin at that time, were active in the 1930s in supporting civil rights for African Americans. The CPUSA, at the time following Stalin's "theory of nationalism", favored the creation of a separate nation for African Americans to be located in the American Southeast where the greatest proportion of the black population was concentrated.

In 1941, after Germany invaded the Soviet Union, Communist International ordered the CPUSA to abandon civil rights work and focus on supporting U.S. entry into World War II. Disillusioned, Rustin began working with members of the Socialist Party of Norman Thomas, particularly A. Philip Randolph, the head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

Another of Rustin's socialist mentors was the pacifist A. J. Muste, leader of the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). FOR hired Rustin as a race relations secretary in the late summer of 1941. He considered Rustin to be a fine young man of oratorical ability and intelligence who would sacrifice himself repeatedly for a good cause. Muste, Randolph and Rustin proposed a march on Washington, D.C., in 1941 to protest racial segregation in the armed forces and widespread discrimination in employment. Meeting with President Roosevelt in the Oval Office, Randolph respectfully and politely but firmly told President Roosevelt that African Americans would march in the capital unless desegregation occurred. To prove their good faith, the organizers canceled the planned march after Roosevelt issued Executive Order 8802 (the Fair Employment Act), which banned discrimination in defense industries and federal agencies.

Rustin had an "infinite capacity for compassion," according to Daniel Levinson. Having an interest in social change from a young age, he would work with the Democratic Party and be influenced by their ideals. However, this changes later in his life when he begins to align with conservative views. In 1944, while imprisoned in North Carolina, Rustin displayed nonviolent tactics. He would allow himself to get beaten repeatedly by a white inmate until he gave up, as Rustin was unnerved. Rustin defied segregation during that time and practiced his tactic while incarcerated.

Randolph's decision as leader of the organizers to cancel the march was made against Rustin's advice. The armed forces, in which Black troops typically had white commanding officers, remained racially segregated until 1948, when President Harry S. Truman issued an Executive Order. (The various branches took years to abide by that order, with the U.S. Marine Corps in 1960 being the last to desegregate.)

Randolph felt that FOR had succeeded in their goal and wanted to dissolve the committee. Again, Rustin disagreed with him and voiced his differing opinion in a national press conference, which he later said he regretted.

Rustin traveled to California to help protect the property of the more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans (most of whom were U.S.-born citizens) who had been imprisoned in internment camps. In the 6-3 Korematsu Decision, the Supreme Court upheld the forcible internment. Impressed with Rustin's organizational skills, A. J. Muste appointed him as FOR's secretary for student and general affairs.

Rustin was also a pioneer in the movement to desegregate interstate bus travel. In 1942, he boarded a bus in Louisville, bound for Nashville, and sat in the second row. A number of drivers asked him to move to the back, according to Southern practice of Jim Crow, but Rustin refused. The bus was stopped by police 13 miles north of Nashville and Rustin was arrested. He was beaten and taken to a police station but was released uncharged.

He spoke about his decision to be arrested, and how that moment also clarified his witness as a gay person, in an interview with the Washington Blade in the 1980s:

"As I was going by the second seat to go to the rear, a white child reached out for the ring necktie I was wearing and pulled it, whereupon its mother said, 'Don't touch a nigger.'

If I go and sit quietly at the back of that bus now, that child, who was so innocent of race relations that it was going to play with me, will have seen so many blacks go in the back and sit down quietly that it's going to end up saying, 'They like it back there, I've never seen anybody protest against it.' I owe it to that child, not only to my own dignity, I owe it to that child, that it should be educated to know that blacks do not want to sit in the back, and therefore I should get arrested, letting all these white people in the bus know that I do not accept that.

It occurred to me shortly after that that it was an absolute necessity for me to declare homosexuality because if I didn't I was a part of the prejudice. I was aiding and abetting the prejudice that was a part of the effort to destroy me."

In 1942, Rustin assisted two other FOR staffers, George Houser and James Farmer, and activist Bernice Fisher as they formed the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). Rustin was not a direct founder, but was later described as "an uncle of CORE". CORE had been conceived as a pacifist organization based on the writings of Mohandas Gandhi, who used non-violent resistance against British rule in India. CORE was also influenced by his protégé Krishnalal Shridharani's book War without Violence.

As declared conscientious objectors who refused induction into the military, Rustin, Houser, and other members of FOR and CORE were convicted of violating the Selective Service Act. From 1944 to 1946, Rustin was imprisoned in Ashland Federal Prison in Kentucky, and later the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary, in Pennsylvania. At both, he organized protests against racially segregated housing and dining facilities. During his incarceration, he also organized FOR's Free India Committee. After his release from prison, he was frequently arrested for protesting against British colonial rule, in both India and Africa.

Just before a trip to Africa while college secretary of the FOR, Rustin recorded a 10-inch LP, Elizabethan Songs and Negro Spirituals, for the Fellowship Records label. He sang spirituals and Elizabethan songs, accompanied on the harpsichord by Margaret Davison.

Influence on the Civil Rights Movement
Rustin and Houser organized the Journey of Reconciliation in 1947. This was the first of the Freedom Rides to test the 1946 ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States in Morgan v. Commonwealth of Virginia that banned racial discrimination in interstate travel as unconstitutional. Rustin and CORE executive secretary George Houser recruited a team of fourteen men, divided equally by race, to ride in pairs through Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The NAACP opposed CORE's Gandhian tactics as too meek. Participants in the Journey of Reconciliation were arrested several times. Arrested with Igal Roodenko and Joe Felmet, Rustin served twenty-two days on a chain gang in North Carolina for violating state Jim Crow laws regarding segregated seating on public transportation. On June 17, 2022, Chapel Hill Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour, with full consent of the state, dismissed the 1947 North Carolina charges against the four Freedom Riders, with members of the exonerees' families in attendance.

In 1948, Rustin traveled to India to learn techniques of nonviolent civil resistance directly from the leaders of the Gandhian movement. The conference had been organized before Gandhi's assassination earlier that year. Between 1947 and 1952, Rustin also met with leaders of independence movements in Ghana and Nigeria. In 1951, he formed the committee to Support South African Resistance, which later became the American Committee on Africa.

Rustin was arrested in Pasadena, California, in January 1953 for sexual activity in a parked car with two men in their 20s. Originally charged with vagrancy and lewd conduct, he pleaded guilty to a single, lesser charge of "sex perversion" (as sodomy was officially referred to in California at the time, even if consensual) and served 60 days in jail. The Pasadena arrest was the first time that Rustin's homosexuality had come to public attention. He had been and remained candid in private about his sexuality, although homosexual activity was still criminalized throughout the United States. Rustin resigned from the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) because of his convictions. They also greatly affected Rustin's relationship with A. J. Muste, the director of the FOR. Muste had already tried to change Rustin's sexuality earlier in their relationship with no success. Later in Rustin's life, they continued their relationship with more tension than they had previously. Rustin became the executive secretary of the War Resisters League. An American Legion chapter in Montana used Rustin's Pasadena conviction to try to cancel his lectures in the state.

Rustin served as an unidentified member of the American Friends Service Committee's task force to write "Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence", published in 1955. This was one of the most influential and widely commented upon pacifist essays in the United States. Rustin had wanted to keep his participation quiet, as he believed that his known sexual orientation would be used by critics as an excuse to compromise the 71-page pamphlet when it was published. It analyzed the Cold War and the American response to it, and recommended non-violent solutions.

Rustin took leave from the War Resisters League in 1956 to advise minister Martin Luther King Jr. of the Baptist Church on Gandhian tactics. King was organizing the public transportation boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, which became known as the Montgomery bus boycott. According to Rustin, "I think it's fair to say that Dr. King's view of non-violent tactics was almost non-existent when the boycott began. In other words, Dr. King was permitting himself and his children and his home to be protected by guns." Rustin convinced King to abandon the armed protection, including a personal handgun. In a 1964 interview with Robert Penn Warren for the book Who Speaks for the Negro?, Rustin also reflected that his integrative ideology began to differ from King's. He believed a social movement "has to be based on the collective needs of people at this time, regardless of color, creed, race."

The following year, Rustin and King began organizing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Many African-American leaders were concerned that Rustin's sexual orientation and past Communist membership would undermine support for the civil rights movement. After the organization of the SCLC, Rustin and King planned a civil rights march adjacent to the 1960 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles. This did not sit well with U.S. Representative Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Powell threatened to leak to the press rumors of a fake affair between Rustin and King. King, acting in his interests, canceled the march, and Rustin left his position in the SCLC. King received criticism for this action from Harper's magazine, which wrote about him: "Lost much moral credit ... in the eyes of the young." Although Rustin was open about his sexual orientation and his convictions were a matter of public record, the events had not been discussed widely beyond the civil rights leadership. Rustin did not let this setback change his direction in the movement.

March on Washington
Despite shunning from some civil rights leaders,

"[w]hen the moment came for an unprecedented mass gathering in Washington, Randolph pushed Rustin forward as the logical choice to organize it."

A few weeks before the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August 1963, South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond railed against Rustin as a "Communist, draft-dodger, and homosexual", and had his entire Pasadena arrest file entered in the record. Thurmond also produced a Federal Bureau of Investigation photograph of Rustin talking to King while King was bathing, to imply that there was a same-sex relationship between the two. Both men denied the allegation of an affair.

Rustin became involved in the March on Washington in 1962 when he was recruited by A. Philip Randolph. The march was planned to be a commemoration of the Emancipation Proclamation one hundred years earlier. Rustin was instrumental in organizing the march. He drilled off-duty police officers as marshals, bus captains to direct traffic, and scheduled the podium speakers. Eleanor Holmes Norton and Rachelle Horowitz were aides. Despite King's support, NAACP chairman Roy Wilkins did not want Rustin to receive any public credit for his role in planning the march. Roy Wilkins said, "This march is of such importance that we must not put a person of his liabilities at the head." Because of this conflict, Randolph served as the director of the march and Rustin as his deputy. During the planning of the march, Rustin feared his previous legal issues would pose a threat to the march. Nevertheless, Rustin did become well known. On September 6, 1963, a photograph of Rustin and Randolph appeared on the cover of Life magazine, identifying them as "the leaders" of the March. Rustin stated his thoughts on the march and said it "made Americans feel for the first time that we were capable of being truly a nation, that we were capable of moving beyond division and bigotry".

New York City school boycott
At the beginning of 1964, Reverend Milton Galamison and other Harlem community leaders invited Rustin to coordinate a citywide boycott of public schools to protest their de facto segregation. Prior to the boycott, the organizers asked the United Federation of Teachers Executive Board to join the boycott or ask teachers to join the picket lines. The union declined, promising only to protect from reprisals any teachers who participated. More than 400,000 New Yorkers participated in a one-day February 3, 1964, boycott. Historian Daniel Perlstein notes that "newspapers were astounded both by the numbers of black and Puerto Rican parents and children who boycotted and by the complete absence of violence or disorder from the protesters." It was, Rustin stated, and newspapers reported, "the largest civil rights demonstration" in American history. Rustin said that "the movement to integrate the schools will create far-reaching benefits" for teachers as well as students.

The protest demanded complete integration of the city's schools (which would require some whites to attend schools in black neighborhoods), and it challenged the coalition between African Americans and white liberals. An ensuing white backlash affected relations among the black leaders. Writing to black labor leaders, Rustin denounced Galamison for seeking to conduct another boycott in the spring and soon abandoned the coalition.

Rustin organized a May March 18 which called for "maximum possible" integration. Perlstein recounts. "This goal was to be achieved through such modest programs as the construction of larger schools and the replacement of junior high schools with middle schools. The UFT and other white moderates endorsed the May rally, yet only four thousand protesters showed up, and the Board of Education was no more responsive to the conciliatory May demonstration than to the earlier, more confrontational boycott."

When Rustin was invited to speak at the University of Virginia in 1964, school administrators tried to ban him, out of fear that he would organize a school boycott there.

From protest to politics
In the spring of 1964, Martin Luther King was considering hiring Rustin as executive director of SCLC but was advised against it by Stanley Levison, a longtime activist friend of Rustin's. He opposed the hire because of what he considered Rustin's growing devotion to the political theorist Max Shachtman. Other SCLC leaders opposed Rustin due to his sexuality.

At the 1964 Democratic National Convention, which followed Freedom Summer in Mississippi, Rustin became an adviser to the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP); they were trying to gain recognition as the legitimate, non-Jim Crow delegation from their state, where blacks had been officially disenfranchised since the turn of the century (as they were generally throughout the South) and excluded from the official political system. DNC leaders Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey offered only two non-voting seats to the MFDP, with the official seating going to the regular segregationist Mississippi delegation. Rustin and the AFL–CIO leaders urged the MFDP to take the offer. MFDP leaders, including Fannie Lou Hamer and Bob Moses, angrily rejected the arrangement; many of their supporters became highly suspicious of Rustin. Rustin's attempt to compromise appealed to the Democratic Party leadership.

After the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Rustin advocated closer ties between the civil rights movement and the Democratic Party, specifically the party's base among the white working class, many of whom still had strong union affiliations. With Tom Kahn, Rustin wrote an influential article in 1964 called "From Protest to Politics", published in Commentary magazine; it analyzed the changing economy and its implications for African Americans. Rustin wrote presciently that the rise of automation would reduce the demand for low-skill high-paying jobs, which would jeopardize the position of the urban African-American working class, particularly in northern states. He believed that the working class had to collaborate across racial lines for common economic goals. His prophecy has been proven right in the dislocation and loss of jobs for many urban African Americans due to the restructuring of industry in the coming decades. Rustin believed that the African-American community needed to change its political strategy, building and strengthening a political alliance with predominately white unions and other organizations (churches, synagogues, etc.) to pursue a common economic agenda. He wrote that it was time to move from protest to politics. Rustin's analysis of the economic problems of the Black community was widely influential.

Rustin argued that since black people could now legally sit in the restaurant after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, they needed to be able to afford service financially. He believed that a coalition of progressive forces to move the Democratic Party forward was needed to change the economic structure.

He also argued that the African-American community was threatened by the appeal of identity politics, particularly the rise of "Black power". He thought this position was a fantasy of middle-class black people that repeated the political and moral errors of previous black nationalists, while alienating the white allies needed by the African-American community. Nation editor and Harvard Law Professor Randall Kennedy noted later that, while Rustin had a general "disdain of nationalism", he had a "very different attitude toward Jewish nationalism" and was "unflaggingly supportive of Zionism".

Commentary editor-in-chief Norman Podhoretz had commissioned the article from Rustin, and the two men remained intellectually and personally aligned for the next 20 years. Podhoretz and the magazine promoted the neoconservative movement, which had implications for civil rights initiatives as well as other economic aspects of the society. In 1985, Rustin publicly praised Podhoretz for his refusal to "pander to minority groups" and for opposing affirmative action quotas in hiring as well as black studies programs in colleges.

Because of these positions, Rustin was criticized as a "sell-out" by many of his former colleagues in the civil rights movement, especially those connected to grassroots organizing. They charged that he was lured by the material comforts that came with a less radical and more professional type of activism. Biographer John D'Emilio rejects these characterizations, and "portrays the final third of Rustin's life as one in which his reputation among his former allies was routinely questioned. After decades of working outside the system, they simply could not accept working within the system." However, Randall Kennedy wrote in a 2003 article that descriptions of Rustin as "a bought man" are "at least partly true", noting that his sponsorship by the AFL–CIO brought him some financial stability but imposed boundaries on his politics.

Kennedy notes that despite Rustin's conservative turn in the mid-1960s, he remained a lifelong socialist, and D'Emilio argues that in the final phase of his life, Rustin remained on the left: "D'Emilio explains, even as Rustin was taking what appeared to be a more "conservative" turn, he remained committed to social justice. Rustin was making radical and ambitious demands for a basic redistribution of wealth in American society, including universal healthcare, the abolition of poverty, and full employment."

Labor movement: Unions and social democracy
Rustin increasingly worked to strengthen the labor movement, which he saw as the champion of empowerment for the African American community and for economic justice for all Americans. He contributed to the labor movement's two sides, economic and political, through the support of labor unions and social-democratic politics. He was the founder and became the Director of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, which coordinated the AFL-CIO's work on civil rights and economic justice. He became a regular columnist for the AFL-CIO newspaper.

On the political side of the labor movement, Rustin increased his visibility as a leader of the American movement for social democracy. In early 1972, he became a national co-chairman of the Socialist Party of America. In December 1972, when the Socialist Party changed its name to Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA) by a vote of 73–34, Rustin continued to serve as national co-chairman, along with Charles S. Zimmerman of the International Ladies Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU). In his opening speech to the December 1972 Convention, Co-Chairman Rustin called for SDUSA to organize against the "reactionary policies of the Nixon Administration"; Rustin also criticized the "irresponsibility and élitism of the 'New Politics' liberals". In later years, Rustin served as the national chairman of SDUSA.

During the 1960s, Rustin was a member of the League for Industrial Democracy. He would remain a member for years, and became vice president during the 1980s.

Foreign policy
Like many liberals and some socialists, Rustin supported President Lyndon B. Johnson's containment policy against communism, while criticizing specific conduct of this policy. In particular, to maintain independent labor unions and political opposition in Vietnam, Rustin and others gave critical support to U.S. military intervention in the Vietnam War, while calling for a negotiated peace treaty and democratic elections. Rustin criticized the specific conduct of the war, though. For instance, in a fundraising letter sent to War Resisters League supporters in 1964, Rustin wrote of being "angered and humiliated by the kind of war being waged, a war of torture, a war in which civilians are being machine-gunned from the air, and in which American napalm bombs are being dropped on the villages."

Along with Allard Lowenstein and Norman Thomas, Rustin worked with the CIA-sponsored Committee on Free Elections in the Dominican Republic, which lent international credibility to a 1966 ballot effectively rigged against the socialist former president, Juan Bosch.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Rustin worked as a human rights and election monitor for Freedom House.

In 1970, Rustin called for the U.S. to send military jets in the fight against Arab states by Israel; referring to a New York Times article he wrote, Rustin wrote to Prime Minister Golda Meir "...I hope that the ad will also have an effect on a serious domestic question: namely, the relations between the Jewish and the Negro communities in America." Rustin was concerned about unity between two groups that he argued faced discrimination in America and abroad, and also believed that Israel's democratic ideals were proof that justice and equality would prevail in the Arab territories despite the atrocities of war. His former colleagues in the peace movement considered it to be a profound betrayal of Rustin's nonviolent ideals.

Rustin maintained his strongly anti-Soviet and anti-communist views later in his life, especially with regard to Africa. Rustin co-wrote with Carl Gershman (a former director of Social Democrats, USA and future Ronald Reagan appointee) an essay entitled "Africa, Soviet Imperialism & the Retreat of American Power", in which he decried Russian and Cuban involvement in the Angolan Civil War and defended the military intervention by apartheid South Africa on behalf of the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) and National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). "And if a South African force did intervene at the urging of black leaders and on the side of the forces that clearly represent the black majority in Angola, to counter a non-African army of Cubans ten times its size, by what standard of political judgment is this immoral?" Rustin accused the Soviet Union of a classic imperialist agenda in Africa in pursuit of economic resources and vital sea lanes, and called the Carter Administration "hypocritical" for claiming to be committed to the welfare of blacks while doing too little to thwart Russian and Cuban expansion throughout Africa.

In 1976, Rustin was a member of the anti-communist Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), founded by politician Paul Nitze. Nitze was a member of Team B, the independent analysts commissioned by George Bush to scrutinize the CIA's assessments of the Soviet nuclear threat. CPD promoted Team B's controversial intelligence claims about Soviet foreign policy, using them as an argument against arms control agreements such as SALT II.

Soviet Jewry movement
The plight of Jews in the Soviet Union reminded Rustin of the struggles that blacks faced in the United States. Soviet Jews faced many of the same forms of discrimination in employment, education, and housing, while also being prisoners within their own country by being denied the chance to emigrate by Soviet authorities. After seeing the injustice that Soviet Jews faced, Rustin became a leading voice in advocating for the movement of Jews from the Soviet Union to Israel. He worked closely with Senator Henry Jackson of Washington, who introduced legislation that tied trade relations with the Soviet Union to their treatment of Jews. In 1966 he chaired the historic Ad hoc Commission on Rights of Soviet Jews organized by the Conference on the Status of Soviet Jews, leading a panel of six jurors in the commission's public tribunal on Jewish life in the Soviet Union. Members of the panel included Telford Taylor, the Nuremberg war trial prosecutor and Columbia University professor of law, Dr. John C. Bennett, president of the Union Theological Seminary; Reverend George B. Ford, pastor emeritus of the Corpus Christi Church; Samuel Fishman representing United Automobile Workers; and Norman Thomas, veteran Socialist leader. The commission collected testimonies from Soviet Jews and compiled them into a report that was delivered to the secretary-general of the United Nations. The report urged the international community to demand that the Soviet authorities allow Jews to practice their religion, preserve their culture, and emigrate from the USSR at their will. The testimonies from Soviet Jews were published by Moshe Decter, the executive secretary of the Conference on the Status of Soviet Jews, in a book—''Redemption! Jewish freedom letters from Russia'', with a foreword by Rustin. Through the 1970s and 1980s Rustin wrote several articles on the subject of Soviet Jewry and appeared at Soviet Jewry movement rallies, demonstrations, vigils, and conferences, in the United States and abroad. He co-sponsored the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry. Rustin allied with Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, an outspoken advocate for Soviet Jewry, and worked closely with Senator Henry Jackson, informing the Jackson–Vanik amendment, vital legislation that restricted United States trade with the Soviet Union in relation to its treatment of Jews.

Criticisms
Rustin was at the forefront of the freedom struggle for African Americans but parted ways from the activists in 1968. He was considered an “Uncle Tom” by some as he started to fight for equality for all and not just blacks. An incident in the summer of 1964 in which a police officer killed a black child led to violence. “When he urged blacks to resist with non-violence, they spat at him and shot back “Uncle Tom! Uncle Tom!”. Rustin’s views of the protest were to “urge them not to behave with desperation but politically and rationally.” He would later switch from radicalism to a truly collaborative approach. Rustin wanted blacks to align themselves with whites to see progression.

Gay rights
Davis Platt, Bayard's partner from the 1940s, said "I never had any sense at all that Bayard felt any shame or guilt about his homosexuality. That was rare in those days. Rare."

Bayard often would be viewed as bisexual because of those attracted to him. His relationships were mainly with the men, both black and white. However, his longer relationships were with the latter. Rustin did not realize his sexual orientation when he was in school. His awareness left no worry, and his family openly accepted it.

Rustin did not engage in any gay rights activism until the 1980s. He was urged to do so by his partner Walter Naegle, who has said that "I think that if I hadn't been in the office at that time, when these invitations [from gay organizations] came in, he probably wouldn't have done them." He was an advocate for people with AIDS/HIV, and because of his public works, he may have “came out” to the public. Rustin no longer hinders his sexual orientation from others. “His aim--to how people responded to him as a black gay man—was “the new barometer for social change”.

Because same-sex marriage was not officially recognized at the time, Rustin and Naegle undertook to solidify their partnership and protect their union legally through adoption: in 1982 Rustin adopted Naegle, 30 years old at the time. Naegle explained that Bayard:

"... was concerned about protecting my rights, because gay people had no protection. At that time, marriage between a same-sex couple was inconceivable. And so he adopted me, legally adopted me, in 1982.

That was the only thing we could do to kind of legalize our relationship. We actually had to go through a process as if Bayard was adopting a small child. My biological mother had to sign a legal paper, a paper disowning me. They had to send a social worker to our home. When the social worker arrived, she had to sit us down to talk to us to make sure that this was a fit home."

Rustin testified in favor of the New York City Gay Rights Bill. In 1986, he gave a speech "The New Niggers Are Gays" in which he asserted:

"Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new 'niggers' are gays... It is in this sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change... The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people."

Also in 1986, Rustin was invited to contribute to the book In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology. He declined, explaining:

"I was not involved in the struggle for gay rights as a youth... I did not 'come out of the closet' voluntarily—circumstances forced me out. While I have no problem with being publicly identified as homosexual, it would be dishonest of me to present myself as one who was in the forefront of the struggle for gay rights... I fundamentally consider sexual orientation to be a private matter. As such, it has not been a factor which has greatly influenced my role as an activist."

Death and beliefs
Rustin died on August 24, 1987, of a perforated appendix. An obituary in The New York Times reported, "Looking back at his career, Mr. Rustin, a Quaker, once wrote: 'The principal factors which influenced my life are 1) nonviolent tactics; 2) constitutional means; 3) democratic procedures; 4) respect for human personality; 5) a belief that all people are one. Rustin was survived by Walter Naegle, his partner of ten years.

Rustin's personal philosophy is said to have been inspired by combining Quaker pacifism with socialism (as taught by A. Philip Randolph), and the theory of non-violent protest popularized by Mahatma Gandhi.

President Ronald Reagan issued a statement on Rustin's death, praising his work for civil rights and "for human rights throughout the world". He added that Rustin "was denounced by former friends, because he never gave up his conviction that minorities in America could and would succeed based on their individual merit".

Legacy
According to journalist Steve Hendrix, Rustin "faded from the shortlist of well-known civil rights lions", in part because he was active behind the scenes, and also because of public discomfort with his sexual orientation and former communist membership. In addition, Rustin's tilt toward neo-conservatism in the late 1960s led him into a disagreement with most civil rights leaders. But, the 2003 documentary film Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin, a Sundance Festival Grand Jury Prize nominee, and the March 2012 centennial of Rustin's birth have contributed to renewed recognition of his extensive contributions.

Rustin served as chairman of Social Democrats, USA, which, The Washington Post wrote in 2013, "was a breeding ground for many neoconservatives". French historian Justin Vaïsse classifies him as a "right-wing socialist" and "second age neoconservative", citing his role as vice-chair of the Coalition for a Democratic Majority, which was involved in the second incarnation of the Committee on the Present Danger.

According to Daniel Richman, former clerk for United States Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall, Marshall's friendship with Rustin, who was open about his homosexuality, played a significant role in Marshall's dissent from the court's 5–4 decision upholding the constitutionality of state sodomy laws in the later overturned 1986 case Bowers v. Hardwick.

Several buildings have been named in honor of Rustin, including the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex located in Chelsea, Manhattan; Bayard Rustin High School near his hometown of West Chester, Pennsylvania; Bayard Rustin Library at the Affirmations Gay/Lesbian Community Center in Ferndale, Michigan; the Bayard Rustin Social Justice Center in Conway, Arkansas, and the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice in Princeton, New Jersey; the Bayard Rustin Room at Friends House, London, UK.

Rustin is one of two men who have both participated in the Penn Relays and had a school, West Chester Rustin High School, named in his honor that participates in the relays. In 1985, Haverford College awarded Rustin an honorary doctorate in law.

1990s and 2000s
In 1995, a Pennsylvania State Historical Marker was placed at Lincoln and Montgomery Avenues, West Chester, Pennsylvania, on the grounds of Henderson High School, which he attended.

A 1998 anthology movie, Out of the Past, featured letters and archival footage of Rustin.

The West Chester Area School District voted in 2002 to approve the creation of Bayard Rustin High School in a 6–3 vote. Those in favor mentioned Rustin's involvement in the civil rights movement, and opposition was tied to Rustin's sexuality and political views. The school opened in 2006.

In July 2007 after a year's collaboration starting in June 2006, a group of San Francisco Bay Area Black LGBT community leaders officially formed the Bayard Rustin Coalition (BRC), with the permission of the Estate of Bayard Rustin. The BRC promotes greater Black participation in the electoral process, advances civil and human rights issues, and promotes the legacy of Rustin.

2010s and beyond
In 2011, the Bayard Rustin Center for LGBTQA Activism, Awareness, and Reconciliation was announced at Guilford College, a Quaker school. Formerly the Queer and Allied Resource Center, the center was rededicated in March 2011 with the permission of the Estate of Bayard Rustin and featured a keynote address by social justice activist Mandy Carter.

In 2012, Rustin was inducted into the Legacy Walk, an outdoor public display which celebrates LGBTQ history and people. In 2013, Rustin was selected as an honoree in the United States Department of Labor Hall of Honor.

On August 8, 2013, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States. The citation in the press release stated:

"Bayard Rustin was an unyielding activist for civil rights, dignity, and equality for all. An advisor to the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., he promoted nonviolent resistance, participated in one of the first Freedom Rides, organized the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and fought tirelessly for marginalized communities at home and abroad. As an openly gay African American, Mr. Rustin stood at the intersection of several of the fights for equal rights."

At the White House ceremony on November 20, 2013, President Obama presented Rustin's award to Walter Naegle, his partner of ten years at the time of Rustin's death.

In 2014, Rustin was one of the inaugural honorees in the Rainbow Honor Walk, a walk of fame in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood noting LGBTQ people who have "made significant contributions in their fields". In April 2018, the Montgomery County Board of Education in Maryland voted to name the Bayard Rustin Elementary School after Rustin.

Canadian writer Steven Elliott Jackson wrote a play that stages an imaginary meeting and one-night-stand between Rustin and Walter Jenkins of the Johnson administration called The Seat Next to the King. The play won the award for Best Play at the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival. A full-length play with music, written by Steve H. Broadnax III, Bayard Rustin Inside Ashland, dramatizing Rustin's World War II prison experience and its central role in his lifetime of activism, had its world premiere on May 22, 2022, at People's Light and Theatre Company in Malvern, Pennsylvania.

The Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice was established in Princeton, New Jersey in 2018, with Naegle acting as Board Member Emeritus. It serves as a community activist center and safe space for LGBTQ kids, intersectional families, and marginalized people.

Rustin was one of the fifty inaugural American "pioneers, trailblazers, and heroes" inducted in June 2019 to the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor, within the Stonewall National Monument (SNM) in New York City's Stonewall Inn. The SNM is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and queer history, with the unveiling timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

In January 2020, California State Senator Scott Wiener, chair of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus, and Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, called for Governor Gavin Newsom to issue a pardon for Rustin's 1953 Pasadena arrest, citing Rustin's legacy as a civil rights icon. Newsom issued the pardon on February 5 while also announcing a new process for fast-tracking pardons for those convicted under historical laws criminalizing homosexuality.

In 2021 Higher Ground Productions, founded by Michelle and Barack Obama, announced production of Rustin, a biographical film directed by George C. Wolfe and starring Colman Domingo in the title role. The film premiered at the Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2023, and was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 13, 2023. It received a limited theatrical release on November 3, 2023, followed by a Netflix release on November 17. Reviews were generally positive, with Colman Domingo's performance garnering numerous accolades including Best Actor nominations for the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Golden Globe Award.

A street in Nyack, New York was renamed "Bayard Rustin Way" in 2022 to honor Rustin's memory.

On June 5, 2023, the Pasadena City Council adopted a resolution introduced by Councilmember Jason Lyon declaring that the "City of Pasadena celebrates and concurs in the Governor's 2020 pardon of Bayard Rustin" and supporting the issuance of a commemorative United States postage stamp honoring Rustin.

Publications

 * Interracial primer, New York: Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1943
 * Interracial workshop: progress report, New York: Sponsored by Congress of Racial Equality and Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1947
 * Journey of reconciliation: report, New York : Fellowship of Reconciliation, Congress of Racial Equality, 1947
 * We challenged Jim Crow! a report on the journey of reconciliation, April 9–23, 1947, New York: Fellowship of Reconciliation, Congress of Racial Equality, 1947
 * "In apprehension how like a god!", Philadelphia: Young Friends Movement 1948
 * The revolution in the South", Cambridge, Massachusetts.: Peace Education Section, American Friends Service Committee, 1950s
 * Report on Montgomery, Alabama New York: War Resisters League, 1956
 * A report and action suggestions on non-violence in the South New York: War Resisters League, 1957
 * Civil rights: the true frontier, New York: Donald Press, 1963
 * From protest to politics: the future of the civil rights movement, New York: League for Industrial Democracy, 1965
 * The city in crisis, (introduction) New York: A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund, 1965
 * "Black power" and coalition politics, New York, American Jewish Committee, 1966
 * Which way? (with Daniel Patrick Moynihan), New York: American Press, 1966
 * The Watts "Manifesto" & the McCone report., New York, League for Industrial Democracy, 1966
 * Fear, frustration, backlash: the new crisis in civil rights, New York, Jewish Labor Committee, 1966
 * The lessons of the long hot summer, New York, American Jewish Committee, 1967
 * The Negro community: frustration politics, sociology and economics, Detroit: UAW Citizenship-Legislative Department, 1967
 * A way out of the exploding ghetto, New York: League for Industrial Democracy, 1967
 * The alienated: the young rebels today and why they're different, Washington, D.C.: International Labor Press Association, 1967
 * "Right to work" laws: a trap for America's minorities, New York: A. Philip Randolph Institute, 1967
 * Civil rights: the movement re-examined (contributor), New York: A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund, 1967
 * Separatism or integration, which way for America?: a dialogue (with Robert Browne), New York, A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund, 1968
 * The Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, an analysis, New York, American Jewish Committee, 1968
 * The labor-Negro coalition, a new beginning, Washington? D.C.: American Federationist?, 1968
 * The anatomy of frustration, New York: Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, 1968
 * Morals concerning minorities, mental health and identity, New York: A. Philip Randolph Institute, 1969
 * Black studies: myths & realities (contributor), New York: A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund, 1969
 * Conflict or coalition?: the civil rights struggle and the trade union movement today, New York: A. Philip Randolph Institute, 1969
 * Three essays, New York: A. Philip Randolph Institute, 1969
 * Black rage, White fear: the full employment answer: an address, Washington, D.C.: Bricklayers, Masons & Plasterers International Union, 1970
 * A word to black students, New York: A. Philip Randolph Institute, 1970
 * The failure of black separatism, New York: A. Philip Randolph Institute, 1970
 * The blacks and the unions (contributor), New York: A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund, 1971
 * Down the line; the collected writings of Bayard Rustin, Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1971
 * Affirmative action in an economy of scarcity (with Norman Hill), New York: A. Philip Randolph Institute, 1974
 * Seniority and racial progress (with Norman Hill), New York: A. Philip Randolph Institute, 1975
 * Have we reached the end of the second reconstruction?, Bloomington, Indiana: The Poynter Center, 1976
 * Strategies for freedom: the changing patterns of Black protest, New York: Columbia University Press, 1976
 * Africa, Soviet imperialism and the retreat of American power, New York: Social Democrats, USA (reprint), 1978
 * South Africa: is peaceful change possible? a report  (contributor), New York: New York Friends Group, 1984
 * Time on two crosses: the collected writings of Bayard Rustin, San Francisco: Cleis Press, 2003
 * I Must Resist: Bayard Rustin's Life in Letters: City Lights, 2012

title: Bayard Rustin


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The Doobie Brothers

The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band formed in 1970 in San Jose, California, known for their flexibility in performing across numerous genres and their vocal harmonies. Active for five decades, with their greatest success during the 1970s, the group's current lineup consists of founding members Tom Johnston (guitars, keyboards, harmonica, vocals) and Patrick Simmons (guitars, banjo, recorder, vocals), alongside Michael McDonald (keyboards, synthesizers, vocals) and John McFee (guitars, pedal steel guitar, mandolin, banjo, violin, cello, harmonica, vocals), and touring musicians including John Cowan (bass, vocals), Marc Russo (saxophones), Ed Toth (drums), and Marc Quiñones (percussion, backing vocals).

Other long-serving members of the band include guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter (1974–1979, 1987, 1992), bassist Tiran Porter (1971–1980, 1987–1992) and drummers John Hartman (1970–1979, 1987–1992), Michael Hossack (1971–1973, 1987–2012), and Keith Knudsen (1973–1982, 1987, 1992, 1993–2005).

Johnston provided the lead vocals for the band from 1970 to 1975, when they featured a mainstream rock sound with elements of folk, country and R&B. Michael McDonald joined the band in 1975 as a keyboard player and second lead vocalist, to give some relief to Johnston, who was suffering health problems at the time. McDonald's interest in soul music introduced a new sound to the band. Johnston and McDonald performed together as co-lead vocalists for one album, Takin' It to the Streets, before Johnston retired fully in 1977.

Frequent lineup changes followed through the rest of the 1970s, and the band broke up in 1982 with Simmons being the only constant member having appeared on all of their albums. In 1987, the Doobie Brothers reformed with Johnston back in the fold. McDonald, who had previously made several guest appearances since their reformation, returned to the band full-time in 2019 for their 50th anniversary tour.

The group's fourteen studio albums include six top-ten appearances on the Billboard 200 album chart, including 1978's Minute by Minute, which reached number one for five weeks, and won the band a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group, while the single "What a Fool Believes" from the album won three Grammys itself.

The band's sixteen Billboard Hot 100 top-40 hits include "Listen to the Music", "Jesus is Just Alright", "Long Train Runnin'", "China Grove", "Black Water" (#1 in 1974), "Takin' It to the Streets", "What A Fool Believes" (#1 in 1979), and "The Doctor", all of which receive rotation on classic hits radio stations.

The band has released six live albums, and numerous greatest hits compilations, including 1976's Best of the Doobies, which was certified diamond by the RIAA for reaching album sales of ten million copies, the band's best selling album.

The Doobie Brothers were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on November 7, 2020. The group has sold more than 40 million records worldwide.

Original incarnation
Drummer John Hartman arrived in California in 1969 determined to meet Skip Spence of Moby Grape and join an aborted Grape reunion. Spence introduced Hartman to singer, guitarist, and songwriter Tom Johnston and the two proceeded to form the nucleus of what would become the Doobie Brothers. Johnston and Hartman called their fledgling group "Pud" and experimented with lineups (occasionally including Spence) and styles as they performed in and around San Jose. They were mostly a power trio (along with bassist Greg Murphy) but briefly worked with a horn section.

In 1970 they teamed up with singer, guitarist, and songwriter Patrick Simmons and bassist Dave Shogren. Simmons had belonged to several area groups (among them "Scratch", an acoustic trio with future Doobies bassist Tiran Porter) and also performed as a solo artist. He was already an accomplished fingerstyle player whose approach to the instrument complemented Johnston's rhythmic R&B strumming.

While still playing locally around San Jose, the group adopted the name "Doobie Brothers". Their friend Keith "Dyno" Rosen, who lived with or next-door to the band, came up with the name after the band had difficulty coming up with one on their own. According to Tom Johnston, Rosen said, "Why don't you call yourself the Doobie Brothers because you're always smoking pot?" Hartman has said he wasn't involved with choosing the name, and didn't know that "doobie" meant a marijuana joint until Rosen told him. Everyone in the band agreed that "Doobie Brothers" was a "dumb" or "stupid" name. Simmons has said the band intended to use the name only for a few early performances until they came up with something better, but they never did.

The Doobie Brothers improved their playing by performing live all over Northern California in 1970. They attracted a particularly strong following among local chapters of the Hells Angels and got a recurring gig at one of the bikers' favorite venues, the Chateau Liberté      in the Santa Cruz mountains, playing there through the summer of 1975 (although some of these concerts did not include all band members and were of an impromptu nature). A set of demos, which showcased fuzz-toned dual lead electric guitars, three-part harmonies and Hartman's drumming, caught the ear of Warner Brothers' staff A & R representative Ted Templeman, and eventually earned the group a contract at Warner Bros. Records before the year was out.

The band's image originally reflected that of their biggest fans—leather jackets and motorcycles. Released in April 1971, their self-titled debut album departed significantly from that image and their live sound of the period. Produced at Pacific Recorders in San Mateo, the album, which failed to chart, emphasized acoustic guitars and reflected country influences. The leadoff song "Nobody", the band's first single, has surfaced in their live set several times over the ensuing decades. Most recently, this song was re-recorded and added to their 2010 album World Gone Crazy.

In the late spring/summer of 1971, their record label sent the Doobies out on their first national tour in tandem with the group Mother Earth, the "Mother Brothers Tour". Also in 1971, the group toyed with the idea of adding a second drummer, supplementing Hartman's drumming on some of their shows with that of United States Navy veteran Michael Hossack while still touring behind their first album.

Moving to Warner Brothers' newly acquired Amigo Studios in North Hollywood starting in late October 1971, the band recorded several songs for their next album with Shogren on bass, guitar, and background vocals, but Shogren left after disagreements with the group's producer, Ted Templeman. Shogren was replaced in December 1971 with singer, songwriter, and bass guitarist Tiran Porter, while Hossack was added to the lineup at the same time as a regular. Porter and Hossack were both stalwarts of the Northern California music scene, Porter having previously played in Scratch with Simmons. Porter brought a funkier bass style and added his husky baritone to the voices of Johnston and Simmons, resulting in a rich three-part blend.

The band's second album, Toulouse Street (which contained the hits "Listen to the Music" and "Jesus Is Just Alright"), brought their breakthrough success after its release in July 1972. In collaboration with manager Bruce Cohn, producer Ted Templeman and engineer Donn Landee, the band put forward a more polished and eclectic set of songs. Pianist Bill Payne of Little Feat contributed keyboards for the first time, beginning a decades-long collaboration that included many recording sessions and even a two-week stint touring with the band in early 1974.

A string of hits followed, including Johnston's "Long Train Runnin'" and "China Grove", from the 1973 album The Captain and Me. Other noteworthy songs on the album were Simmons' country-ish ode "South City Midnight Lady" and the explosive, hard rocking raveup "Without You", for which the entire band received songwriting credit. Onstage, the latter song sometimes stretched into a 15-minute jam with additional lyrics completely ad-libbed by Johnston. A 1973 appearance on the debut episode of the television music variety show Don Kirshner's Rock Concert featured one such performance of the tune.

In the midst of recording sessions for their next album, 1974's What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits, and rehearsals for a 1973 fall tour, Hossack abruptly departed the band, citing burnout from constant touring. Drummer, songwriter, and vocalist Keith Knudsen (who previously drummed for Lee Michaels of "Do You Know What I Mean" fame) was recruited promptly in September 1973 and left with the Doobies on a major tour a few weeks later (Hossack subsequently replaced Knudsen in the band Bonaroo, which served as an opening act for the Doobies shortly thereafter). Both Hossack's drums and Knudsen's voice are heard on Vices.

In 1974, Steely Dan co-lead guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter learned that his band was retiring from the road and that Donald Fagen and Walter Becker intended to work almost exclusively with session players in the future. In need of a steady gig, he joined the Doobie Brothers as third lead guitarist in the middle of their current tour. He had previously worked with the band in the studio, adding pedal steel guitar to both Captain ("South City Midnight Lady") and Vices ("Black Water", "Tell Me What You Want") and was already playing with the band as a special guest during that year's tour.

Vices included the band's first No. 1 single, Simmons' signature tune "Black Water". It topped the charts in March 1975 and eventually propelled the album to multi-platinum status. Johnston's lyrical "Another Park, Another Sunday" (as a single, it featured "Black Water" as the B-side) and his horn-driven funk song "Eyes of Silver" also charted the year before at numbers 32 & 52, respectively.

During this period and for several subsequent tours, the Doobies were often supported on stage by Stax Records mainstays the Memphis Horns. Live recordings with the horn section have aired on radio on the King Biscuit Flower Hour, but none have been officially released. The Memphis Horns also appeared as session players on multiple Doobies albums.

By the end of 1974, Johnston's health was suffering from the rigors of the road. He was absent when the band joined the Beach Boys, Chicago, and Olivia Newton-John on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve that December. By then, the western-themed Stampede had been completed for release in 1975. It featured yet another hit single, Johnston's cover of the Holland–Dozier–Holland-written Motown hit "Take Me in Your Arms" (originally sung by Kim Weston and also covered by the Isley Brothers, Blood Sweat and Tears and Mother Earth). Simmons contributed the atmospheric "I Cheat the Hangman", as well as "Neal's Fandango", an ode to Santa Cruz, Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady. Ry Cooder added his slide guitar to Johnston's cowboy song, "Rainy Day Crossroad Blues".

By the start of the Spring 1975 promotional tour for Stampede, Johnston's condition was so precarious that he required emergency hospitalization for a bleeding ulcer. With Johnston convalescing and the tour already underway, Baxter proposed recruiting a fellow Steely Dan alum to fill the hole: singer, songwriter, and keyboardist Michael McDonald. Simmons, Knudsen, Porter and McDonald divided Johnston's singing parts on tour while Simmons and Baxter shared lead guitar responsibilities.

Michael McDonald years
Under contract to release another album in 1976, the Doobies were at a crossroads. Their primary songwriter and singer remained unavailable, so they turned to McDonald and Porter for material to supplement that of Simmons. The resulting LP, Takin' It to the Streets, debuted a radical change in their sound. Their electric guitar-based rock and roll gave way to a more soft rock and blue-eyed soul sound, emphasizing keyboards and horns and subtler, more syncopated rhythms. Baxter contributed jazz-inflected guitar stylings reminiscent of Steely Dan, along with unusual, complex harmony and longer, more developed melody. Above all, McDonald's voice became the band's new signature sound. Takin' It to the Streets featured McDonald's title track and "It Keeps You Runnin'", both hits. (A second version of "It Keeps You Runnin'", performed by Carly Simon, appeared on her album Another Passenger, with the Doobies backing her.) Bassist Porter wrote and sang "For Someone Special" as a tribute to the absent Johnston. A greatest hits compilation, Best of the Doobies, followed before year's end. (In 1996, the Recording Industry Association of America certified Best of the Doobies "Diamond" for sales in excess of 10 million units.)

Their new sound was further refined, and McDonald's dominant role cemented with 1977's Livin' on the Fault Line. It featured a cover of the Motown classic "Little Darling (I Need You)" and "Echoes of Love", which had been written by Willie Mitchell for, but not recorded by, Al Green. Mitchell (then of the Memphis Horns) and Earl Randle had both worked with Green a good bit. Simmons added some music and lyrics, co-writing the finished version with Mitchell and Randle; the song was later covered not just by the Pointer Sisters but by Lyn Paul, the ex-New Seekers vocalist. The album also featured the song "You Belong to Me" (co-written by McDonald and Carly Simon, who had a hit with her own version of the tune). To help promote Fault Line, the band performed live on the PBS show Soundstage. Baxter used an early type of guitar synthesizer (made by Roland) on many of the tracks (especially the title track and "China Grove"). Both Streets and Fault Line reflected Johnston's diminished role in the group following his illness. Restored to fitness and briefly back in the fold, he contributed one original song to Streets ("Turn It Loose"), and also sang a verse on Simmons' tune "Wheels of Fortune". He also made live appearances with the band in 1976 (documented in a concert filmed that year at the Winterland in San Francisco, excerpts of which appear occasionally on VH1 Classic) but was sidelined once again that fall due to exhaustion. None of Johnston's songs appeared on Fault Line, though he had written and the band had recorded five of his compositions for the album. Regardless, he received credit for guitars and vocals and was pictured on the album's inner sleeve band photo. He soon left the band he co-founded, embarking on a solo career that eventually yielded one modestly successful 1979 Warner Brothers album, Everything You've Heard is True, which featured the single "Savannah Nights", and the less successful album Still Feels Good in 1981.

During this period of transition, the band also elevated former roadie Bobby LaKind to onstage backup vocalist and percussionist. In the studio, LaKind first contributed percussion to Streets but had been a member of the band's lighting crew since 1974. Additionally, in January 1978, the band appeared as themselves in two episodes of the ABC sitcom What's Happening!!, performing "Little Darlin' (I Need You)", "Black Water", "Takin' It to the Streets", and "Take Me in Your Arms". Performances were done live (versus lip synching to a pre-recorded track), with some overdubs added in post production, notably during Baxter's solo on "Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)," which was lifted from the album version.

After almost a decade on the road, and with seven albums to their credit, the Doobies' profile was substantially elevated by the success of their next album, 1978's Minute by Minute. It spent five weeks atop the charts and dominated several radio formats for the better part of two years. McDonald's song "What a Fool Believes", written with Kenny Loggins, was the band's second No. 1 single and earned the songwriting duo (along with producer Ted Templeman) a Grammy Award for Record of the Year. The album won a Grammy for Pop Vocal Performance by a Group and was nominated for Album of the Year. Both "What a Fool Believes" and the title track were nominated for Song of the Year, with "What a Fool Believes" winning the award. Among the other memorable songs on the album are "Here to Love You", "Dependin' On You" (co-written by McDonald and Simmons), "Steamer Lane Breakdown" (a Simmons bluegrass instrumental) and McDonald's "How Do the Fools Survive?" (co-written by Carole Bayer Sager). Nicolette Larson and departed former bandleader Johnston contributed guest vocals on the album.

Minute by Minute 's triumph was bittersweet because it coincided with the near dissolution of the band. The pressure of touring while recording and releasing an album each year had worn the members down. Baxter and McDonald had been in creative conflict for some time. McDonald desired a direct, soulful and polished rock/R&B sound, while Baxter insisted on embellishing guitar parts in an increasingly avant-garde style. (Both McDonald and Baxter elaborated on the matter in the documentary series Behind the Music, which aired on VH1 in February 2001.) Just as Minute by Minute 's success became apparent, Hartman, Baxter, and LaKind left the band. A two-song set on the January 27, 1979, broadcast of Saturday Night Live (with guest host Michael Palin) marked the final television appearance of this lineup, and a brief tour of Japan marked the band's last live performances in this configuration (Hartman subsequently joined Johnston's touring band in 1979 and taped an appearance with him that aired on Soundstage in 1980).

Looking to capitalize on the momentum provided by the success of "Minute by Minute", the remaining Doobies (Simmons, Knudsen, McDonald and Porter) decided to embark on a national tour with a reconstituted lineup. In 1979 Hartman was replaced by session drummer Chet McCracken and Baxter by multi-instrumental string player John McFee (late of Huey Lewis's early band Clover); Cornelius Bumpus (who had been part of a recent reunion of Moby Grape) was also recruited to add vocals, keyboards, saxophones, and flute to the lineup. This lineup toured throughout 1979, including stops at Madison Square Garden and New York City's Battery Park for the No Nukes benefit shows with like-minded artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Crosby, Stills & Nash, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Jackson Browne, Bruce Springsteen and John Hall.

1980 marked LaKind's return to the lineup as a full-time member and the Doobies' ninth studio album, One Step Closer. The LP featured the hit title track and the Top 10 hit "Real Love" (not to be confused with the John Lennon composition) but did not dominate the charts and the radio as Minute by Minute had, largely due to an oversaturation of the "McDonald sound" by many other artists (such as Robbie Dupree's hit "Steal Away", which copied the "McDonald sound" nearly note for note) on the radio at the time—not to mention McDonald's numerous guest vocal appearances on hits by other artists, such as Kenny Loggins, Christopher Cross, Lauren Wood and Nicolette Larson. The album itself was also noticeably weaker musically than the previous three with the band sounding tired and seemingly devolving to little more than McDonald's "backup band" (according to contemporary sources). "Ted and Michael became one faction against Pat and the rest of us", Porter said in an interview. Long frustrated with the realities of relentless touring and yearning for a stable home life, as well as battling an admitted cocaine problem, Porter left the band after the recording of Closer. Session bassist Willie Weeks joined the band and the Doobies continued touring throughout 1980 and 1981 (post-Doobies, Weeks has performed with the Gregg Allman Band, Eric Clapton, and many others). Also, during the 1981 tour, veteran session drummer Andy Newmark stepped in briefly for Knudsen, who was then in rehab. And by the end of 1981, even Simmons had left the band. Now with no remaining original members and a "leader" in McDonald who was ready for a solo career, the group elected instead to disband after a rehearsal without Simmons, according to an interview with McDonald for Listen to the Music, the Doobie Brothers' official video history/documentary released in 1989. He went on to say that by that point they could not have gotten further away from the Doobies sound if they had tried. Simmons, already at work on his first solo album, Arcade, rejoined for a 1982 farewell tour on the condition that this truly would be the end of the Doobie Brothers. At their last concert at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California, on September 11, 1982, they were joined onstage by founding member Tom Johnston for what was presumed to be the final rendition of his staple, "China Grove". Former members Porter, Hossack and Hartman subsequently took the stage for an extended version of "Listen to the Music". Knudsen sang lead vocals while Johnston, Simmons and McFee traded licks on guitar. The live album Farewell Tour was released in 1983 and the Greek Theatre concert was released in 2011 as Live at the Greek Theatre 1982.

Reunion
The Doobies did not work together for the next five years, though various members got together in different configurations for annual Christmas season performances for the patients and staff at the Stanford Children's Hospital in the Bay area. Simmons released a commercially disappointing solo album, Arcade, in April 1983. During the mid-1980s, Johnston toured U.S. clubs with a band called Border Patrol, which did not release any recordings. Hossack and (briefly) Simmons worked with the group. Around 1986, Johnston and Simmons began working on an album together (according to a 1989 interview with Simmons) but abandoned the project soon after with no known finished tracks.

In 1983 Knudsen and McFee formed the band Southern Pacific and recorded four albums that found success in the country charts (former Creedence Clearwater Revival bassist Stu Cook joined the band in 1986 and former Pablo Cruise guitarist David Jenkins in 1988).

Out of print for many years, Simmons' Arcade was reissued on compact disc in 2007 by specialty label Wounded Bird Records, which is also the home of Southern Pacific's and Tom Johnston's catalogs.

Post-Doobies, McDonald became established as a solo artist. His voice dominated adult contemporary radio throughout the 1980s. And he experienced a renaissance of popularity in the 21st century as an interpreter of Motown classics.

The reformation of the Doobie Brothers was not intentional. On a personal quest for a worthy cause and after conquering his drug addiction, Knudsen became active in the Vietnam Veterans Aid Foundation. In early 1987, he persuaded 11 Doobie alumni to join him for a concert to benefit veterans' causes. Answering the call were Tom Johnston, Pat Simmons, Jeff Baxter, John McFee, John Hartman, Michael Hossack, Chet McCracken, Michael McDonald, Cornelius Bumpus, Bobby LaKind and Tiran Porter, plus their long-time record producer and good friend, Ted Templeman. There were no surplus bass players as Weeks had other commitments. They soon discovered that tickets were in great demand, so the concert quickly evolved into a 12-city tour that began on May 21, 1987, in San Diego. The third concert, held at the Hollywood Bowl, was reportedly the venue's fastest sell-out since the Beatles had played there just over 20 years earlier. The band performed selections from every album using a wide variety of instrumentation that they could not have previously duplicated onstage without the expanded lineup. Baxter and McFee played pedal steel and violin, respectively, during "Black Water" and "Steamer Lane Breakdown". "Without You" featured four drummers and four lead guitarists. Producer Ted Templeman played percussion and LaKind sometimes played Knudsen's drum set while Knudsen went to the front of the stage to join the chorus. Templeman also played the drum set on "What a Fool Believes", as he did on the original hit record. The tour culminated (sans McDonald, LaKind, McFee and Knudsen) at the Glasnost-inspired July 4 "Peace Concert" in Moscow, with Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor and Santana sharing the bill. Excerpts appearing later that year on the Showtime cable network included a performance of "China Grove".

The successful 1987 reunion sparked discussions about reconstituting the band on a permanent basis. They eventually decided to replicate the Toulouse Street/Captain and Me incarnation, settling on a lineup featuring Johnston, Simmons, Hartman, Porter and Hossack, plus more recent addition LaKind, and released Cycles on Capitol Records in 1989. The album featured a Top 10 single, "The Doctor". The song is very similar to "China Grove", and the connection was further enhanced by guest Bill Payne's tinkling piano. Other material on the album included Johnston's "South of the Border", Dale Ockerman's and Pat Simmons' "Take Me to the Highway", and "I Can Read Your Mind", a version of the Isley Brothers' "Need a Little Taste of Love", and a version of the Four Tops classic, "One Chain (Don't Make No Prison)", which had been covered by Santana years before. Cycles proved a successful comeback album and was certified Gold. Bumpus participated in the 1989 and 1990 tours, adding his distinctive voice, keyboards, saxophone and flute. His presence bridged the gap between the current band and the McDonald era; he sang lead vocals on "One Step Closer" (as he originally had on the 1980 album) while Simmons took McDonald's part. The group was further augmented on the 1989 tour by Dale Ockerman (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), Richard Bryant (percussion, vocals) and Jimi Fox (percussion, backing vocals). After being diagnosed with terminal colon cancer, LaKind stepped down before the tour to focus on his health.

The 1990s
The success of Cycles led to the release of 1991's Brotherhood, also on Capitol. The group members grew their hair back out, wore denim and leather, and attempted to revive their biker image of the early 1970s. In spite of the makeover and strong material led by Simmons' now trademark "Dangerous" (featured in the Brian Bosworth biker film Stone Cold), Brotherhood was unsuccessful, in part due to a lack of support from Capitol Records, who dropped the group from their roster by the end of 1991.

The accompanying tour (with the 1989 lineup sans Bumpus), which also featured Joe Walsh on the bill, was ranked among the ten least profitable tours of the disappointing 1991 summer season by the North American Concert Promoters Association, and after losing the Capital deal, the group was inactive by the end of '91, its future uncertain.

The 1987 Doobie Brothers alumni band reunited on October 17 and 19, 1992, at the Concord Pavilion in Concord, California to perform benefit shows for LaKind's children. LaKind, terminally ill with colon cancer, joined the group on percussion for a few numbers. The concerts were recorded and subsequently broadcast on the Superstars in Concert radio series accompanied by a plea for contributions to the LaKind family fund. LaKind died on December 24, 1992, at the age of 47.

Another brief hiatus followed during which Simmons collaborated with bassist and songwriter John Cowan (ex-New Grass Revival), Rusty Young (of Poco) and Bill Lloyd (of Foster & Lloyd) on an unreleased project called Four Wheel Drive.

When the band emerged yet again in 1993, Hartman and Porter had retired from the road for good but Knudsen and McFee rejoined the Doobie Brothers on a full-time basis after Southern Pacific disbanded. Joined by Ockerman, Bumpus and Weeks, the group toured with Four Wheel Drive as the opening act. After Weeks left the tour to resume his session work, Cowan played bass for both bands. Bumpus also left to join the reunited Steely Dan, giving way to saxophonist, keyboardist and harmonica player Danny Hull. Former band member Chet McCracken temporarily filled in for an injured Hossack in July 1993. Their 1994 tour included co-headlining appearances with Foreigner.

With renewed energy in the mid-1990s, the band began to experiment with different arrangements of several tunes. They even pulled from McDonald's songbook from time to time, eventually restoring "Takin' it to the Streets" to the setlist with Simmons and new bass guitarist Skylark (who joined in 1995) substituting for McDonald on lead vocals.

Return to permanent touring
The band has toured continuously since 1993. In 1995 they reunited with McDonald for a co-headlining tour with the Steve Miller Band. The "Dreams Come True" tour featured all three primary songwriters and singers and reflected all phases of the band's career. Bumpus rejoined for the 1995 tour, with McCracken replacing the absent Knudsen and Bernie Chiaravalle sitting in for McFee.

On January 28, 1996 they performed during the Super Bowl XXX pre-game show at Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona.

A 1996 double live album, Rockin' Down the Highway: The Wildlife Concert, featured McDonald on three of his signature tunes. McDonald remains an occasional special guest to this day and has joined the group for benefits, private corporate shows and parties (such as the wedding reception of Liza Minnelli and David Gest, their former advance publicist). As of 2019, he rejoined the band for their 50th Anniversary Tour, which resumed in 2021 after being halted due to COVID-19.

In mid-1996, Ockerman was replaced by keyboardist Guy Allison (ex-Moody Blues and Air Supply). Saxophonist Marc Russo (ex-Yellowjackets) joined in early 1998, replacing Hull.

In 1999 the band obtained an injunction preventing a tribute band featuring former members McCracken, Bumpus and Shogren from performing under any variation of the "Doobie Brothers" name.

The 2000s
In 1999 Rhino Records released the group's first box set, Long Train Runnin': 1970–2000, which featured remastered tunes from the band's entire catalog, a new studio recording of the live concert staple "Little Bitty Pretty One" and an entire disc of previously unreleased studio outtakes and live recordings. And Rhino's release the following year, Sibling Rivalry, was the band's first new studio album since 1991. The material reflected contributions from both Knudsen and McFee, ranging from rock to hip-hop, jazz, adult contemporary and country. The album sold poorly, reflecting the declining sales throughout the adult-oriented rock musical scene.

On June 22, 2001 while heading to a show at Caesars Tahoe in Lake Tahoe, Hossack suffered multiple fractures in a motorcycle accident on Highway 88 and had to be airlifted to a Sacramento-area hospital, where he underwent surgery. Drummer and percussionist M. B. Gordy was recruited to fill in for Hossack. After being sidelined for months, Hossack returned to the band in mid-2002. Gordy remained with the band as an auxiliary percussionist until 2005.

Saxophonist Ed Wynne, from the Wayne Brady Show, filled in for Marc Russo for the Doobies' 2002 summer tour.

On October 26, 2004 the Doobie Brothers released Live at Wolf Trap, a live album that was recorded at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Virginia on July 25 of that year. The album features the final recordings of drummer and vocalist Keith Knudsen, who died in February 2005. Ed Toth, from the band Vertical Horizon, took over Keith's spot.

The 2010s
For its 2010 and 2012 summer tours, the band was once again paired with Chicago, as it had been in 1974, 1999 and 2008.

In March 2010 longtime bass guitarist/vocalist Skylark resigned from the band after suffering a serious stroke. John Cowan, who had originally toured with the band in the mid-1990s, returned to take Skylark's place, and has been with the band ever since. Three months later, before the band embarked on its 2010 summer tour with Chicago, Hossack was forced to sit out following a diagnosis of cancer. Tony Pia, a member of the Brian Setzer Orchestra, was recruited to substitute for Hossack. Pia became an official touring member of the band following Hossack's death in 2012.

On September 28, 2010 the Doobie Brothers released their 13th studio album, World Gone Crazy, produced by their longtime producer Ted Templeman. World Gone Crazy was the first Doobie Brothers album Templeman produced since 1980's One Step Closer. The album's first single, "Nobody", was free-streamed on their website.

By March 2012, five members of the Doobie Brothers family were deceased: percussionist/vocalist LaKind on December 24, 1992, of colon cancer; original bass guitarist / vocalist Shogren of unreported causes on December 14, 1999; saxophonist, keyboardist, vocalist, and flutist Bumpus of a heart attack on February 3, 2004, while in the air en route to California for a solo tour; drummer, vocalist, and activist Keith Knudsen on February 8, 2005, of cancer and chronic pneumonia; and drummer Michael Hossack of cancer on March 12, 2012.

On November 13, 2012 the Doobie Brothers released an official documentary, Let the Music Play: The Story of the Doobie Brothers. It features interviews and rare footage from their early days of the 1970s to the present day. Johnston, Simmons, McDonald, McFee, Porter, and Baxter, along with manager Bruce Cohn, producer Ted Templeman, and members of the Johnston and Simmons families are interviewed in the film.

In March 2014 the Doobie Brothers, in conjunction with Sony Music Nashville, announced that their 14th studio album would be released featuring the greatest hits of their 40+-year career. The album would feature lead and backing vocals from several country artists, and Michael McDonald returned to collaborate on the album. Featured artists included Sara Evans, Vince Gill, Hunter Hayes, Casey James, Toby Keith, Love and Theft, Jerrod Niemann, Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton, Tyler Farr, Chris Young, Charlie Worsham, and the Zac Brown Band.

The album, entitled Southbound, was released on November 4, 2014. The following day, the Doobie Brothers and Michael McDonald were featured musical guests on the 47th Annual CMA Awards to celebrate its release, and were joined by Hunter Hayes, Jennifer Nettles, and Hillary Scott in a performance of "Listen to the Music". At the end of the ceremony, in addition to Hayes, Nettles, and Scott, they were joined by co-host Brad Paisley for "Takin' It to the Streets".

The Doobie Brothers performed at Music City Roots on May 13, 2015, sharing the stage with Béla Fleck and Dan Tyminski. This was the band's second performance at the venue, after an all-acoustic performance in 2011. The acoustic portion of the 2015 show featured songs that had not been heard by audiences in years, including the bluesy Chicago from their debut album and the title track from Toulouse Street.

In early August 2015, keyboardist/backing vocalist Guy Allison was called to fly out to Japan to work on an album project. Little Feat co-founder and pianist Bill Payne, known for his contributions to many of the band's early studio albums, was selected to temporarily fill in for Allison in his absence. Allison briefly returned to the band after their September 5 show at Susquehanna Bank Center in Camden, New Jersey.

On August 20, 2015 the Doobie Brothers and Michael McDonald were the featured musical guests on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where they performed a medley of "Long Train Runnin'" and "Takin' It to the Streets". The band also performed a web-exclusive performance of "What a Fool Believes" that was made available on The Tonight Show 's website.

On the afternoon of September 11, 2015, the Doobie Brothers performed at the Lockn' Festival in Arrington, Virginia, sharing the stage with the jam band the String Cheese Incident. The Doobies then flew to Cherokee, North Carolina for an evening concert.

In October 2015 Payne officially took over Guy Allison's duties as the Doobies' keyboardist, whilst remaining an active member of Little Feat.

On November 24, 2015 the Doobie Brothers together with Journey launched a tour featuring Dave Mason. The pairing with Journey continued on May 12, 2016, at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre and concluded on September 4, 2016, when the Doobies and Journey joined the Steve Miller Band and Santana at AT&T Park. They also appeared at Warren Haynes Christmas Jam on December 12, 2015, however Johnston did not appear at the show due to knee surgery. They officially announced that Payne would replace Allison on December 1, 2015.

In March 2016 the Doobie Brothers signed under new management with Irving Azoff. Drummer Tony Pia left the band in the summer of 2016, leaving Ed Toth as the band's sole drummer.

In January 2017 the Doobie Brothers announced that Chicago would once again join them for their Summer 2017 tour. The tour began on June 7 at the Concord Pavilion and wrapped up on July 30 in Virginia Beach. They appeared with the Eagles and Steely Dan at the Classic concerts for two weekends in July 2017. These concerts took place on July 15 at Dodger Stadium billed as the Classic West and July 29 Citi Field as the Classic East. The success of these concerts led an appearance at the Classic Northwest concert on September 30 held at Safeco Field, opening again for the Eagles. The band took the last leg of their 2017 world tour to Europe in late October and early November, opening for Steely Dan.

During 2018, they announced that they would tour again with Steely Dan. This tour began in Charlotte, North Carolina and concluded in Bethel, New York in July. Former Allman Brothers percussionist Marc Quiñones joined the band in May 2018 and on July 16, 2018, the band announced that they would perform the Toulouse Street and The Captain and Me albums in their entirety along with a selection select of hits, at the Beacon Theatre in New York City on November 15 and 16, 2018. These shows marked the first time the band performed at the theatre in 25 years. The concerts were recorded and subsequently released as a live album on June 28, 2019.

During the summer of 2019, the band toured with Santana. On November 18, 2019, the band performed at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and performed the Toulouse Street and The Captain and Me albums in their entirety once again. Michael McDonald joined the band for an encore and they performed "Takin' It to the Streets". At the end of the concert, Simmons made the announcement that McDonald would re-join the band and participate in the band's 50th Anniversary tour.

Since the early 2000s, they have headlined and performed at many benefit concerts including former manager Cohn's B.R. Cohn Winery in Glen Ellen where they had also shared the stage with McDonald in 2006 and 2012. Cohn sold his winery in 2015 to set his primary focus on managing the band and the B.R Cohn Charity Fall Music Festival was relocated to the Sonoma Valley Field of Dreams. The festival was renamed the Sonoma Music Festival. The Doobie Brothers and McDonald, Chicago and Ringo Starr headlined the three-day event.

The 2020s
On January 15, 2020, it was announced that the Doobie Brothers were one of the six groups that would be inducted into the 2020 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The induction included living members Tom Johnston, Patrick Simmons, Michael McDonald, John McFee, Tiran Porter, John Hartman and Jeff Baxter, while drummer & vocalist Keith Knudsen and drummer Michael Hossack would be inducted posthumously. The induction ceremony was originally scheduled to take place on May 2, 2020, in Cleveland, but was postponed to November 7 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The November 7 induction ceremony was held virtually on HBO Max, with Johnston, McDonald, and Simmons pre-recording their induction speeches on behalf of the other band members who were inducted alongside them.

In February 2020, the Doobie Brothers had a scheduled residency at the Venetian in Las Vegas. The band was only three shows into their eight-day residency when they were forced to cancel the remaining five dates after it was mentioned that there was an illness in the band. It was later discovered that Johnston had an early version of COVID-19, the virus that would end up becoming designated as a pandemic just one month later.

On May 26, 2020, the Doobie Brothers officially announced that they had rescheduled their 50th Anniversary tour to 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and confirmed that the line up of this tour would include McDonald for the first time in 25 years.

During their time in isolation throughout 2020, the Doobie Brothers released at-home performances of "Black Water", "Listen to the Music", and "Takin' it to the Streets". These performances can be found on their social media accounts, such as YouTube and Facebook. In addition, they collaborated with Dave Mason for a cover of Traffic's "Feelin' Alright" and Peter Frampton for a cover of Eric Clapton's "Let it Rain".

On August 6, 2021, the Doobie Brothers released the EP of four songs that would eventually be featured on their fifteenth studio album. These songs included Johnston's "Don't Ya Mess with Me" and "Oh Mexico" along with Simmons's "Better Days" and "Cannonball".

After just over 18 months of not being able to tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the band (with McDonald back in the fold) finally began their 50th Anniversary Tour at the Iowa State Fair on Sunday, August 22, 2021. The first leg of the tour concluded at the PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania on October 29, 2021, and the second leg began in West Palm Beach, Florida on June 2, 2022. Bill Payne left the touring band at the end of the first leg, citing his desire to commit "100%" to Little Feat. He was not replaced, and the tour continued with McDonald returning to his original role of primary keyboardist.

The Doobie Brothers were featured musical guests on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday, September 23, 2021.

On October 29, 2021, the band released Liberté, their fifteenth full-length studio album and first album of original material in 11 years. All of the tracks on the album were co-written with John Shanks. Shanks is known for his work with Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow, and Melissa Etheridge, to name a few.

Original drummer John Hartman died on December 29, 2021. The band posted a tribute to him on their website in September 2022.

In 2023, Johnston, McDonald, and Simmons (as the Doobie Brothers) were nominated for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In addition, a continuation of their 50th Anniversary tour was planned for the year.

The Doobies started their 2023 touring schedule in Australia and Japan in April before making their way to Hawaii and then returning to the continental U.S. in May. Three days before they were set to perform in Hollywood, Florida, the band released a statement that Tom Johnston would be undergoing surgery following severe back pain and wouldn't be able to join the band on the upcoming leg of the 50th Anniversary Tour. Simmons, McDonald, and McFee continued the 2023 touring schedule in Johnston's absence. Lead vocal duties normally done by Johnston were shared between Simmons, McDonald, and bassist John Cowan.

In June 2023, Simmons said in an interview that the band will be releasing new music the next year with McDonald.

The band opened for the Eagles on the latter's The Long Goodbye Tour in November 2023, replacing Steely Dan due to health issues surrounding Donald Fagen.

On November 17, 2023, the Doobie Brothers released a new single entitled "Lahaina" to benefit the families and individuals affected by the 2023 Hawaii wildfires. The song, produced by John Shanks, features Mick Fleetwood on drums, Jake Shimabukuro on ukulele, and Henry Kapono on vocals.

In 2024 a fully healed Tom Johnston rejoined the Doobies, who continued on with their 50th Anniversary tour.

Members
Current official members Current touring members
 * Patrick Simmons – guitar, banjo, recorder, vocals (1970–1982, 1987–1991, 1992, 1993–present)
 * Tom Johnston – vocals, lead guitar, keyboards, harmonica (1970–1977, 1987–1991, 1992, 1993–present)
 * Michael McDonald – vocals, keyboards, synthesizers (1975–1982, 1987, 1992, 1995–1996, 2019–present)
 * John McFee – guitar, mandolin, banjo, violin, cello, pedal steel guitar, harmonica, vocals (1979–1982, 1987, 1993–present)
 * John Cowan – bass, lead and backing vocals (1993–1995, 2010–present)
 * Marc Russo – saxophones (1998–present)
 * Ed Toth – drums, percussion (2005–present)
 * Marc Quiñones – percussion, backing vocals (2018–present)

Discography

 * The Doobie Brothers (1971)
 * Toulouse Street (1972)
 * The Captain and Me (1973)
 * What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits (1974)
 * Stampede (1975)
 * Takin' It to the Streets (1976)
 * Livin' on the Fault Line (1977)
 * Minute by Minute (1978)
 * One Step Closer (1980)
 * Cycles (1989)
 * Brotherhood (1991)
 * Sibling Rivalry (2000)
 * World Gone Crazy (2010)
 * Southbound (2014)
 * Liberté (2021)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: The Doobie Brothers


text:
GNAT

GNAT is a free-software compiler for the Ada programming language which forms part of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC). It supports all versions of the language, i.e. Ada 2012, Ada 2005, Ada 95 and Ada 83. Originally its name was an acronym that stood for GNU NYU Ada Translator, but that name no longer applies. The front-end and run-time are written in Ada.

History
The GNAT project started in 1992 when the United States Air Force awarded New York University (NYU) a contract to build a free compiler for Ada to help with the Ada 9X standardization process. The 3-million-dollar contract required the use of the GNU GPL for all development, and assigned the copyright to the Free Software Foundation. The first official validation of GNAT occurred in 1995.

In 1994 and 1996, the original authors of GNAT founded two sister companies, Ada Core Technologies in New York City and ACT-Europe (later AdaCore SAS) in Paris, to provide continuing development and commercial support of GNAT. The two companies always operated as one entity, but did not formally unify until 2012 as AdaCore.

GNAT was initially released separately from the main GCC sources. On October 2, 2001, the GNAT sources were contributed to the GCC CVS repository. The last version to be released separately was GNAT 3.15p, based on GCC 2.8.1, on October 2, 2002. Starting with GCC 3.4, on major platforms the official GCC release is able to pass 100% of the ACATS Ada tests included in the GCC testsuite. By GCC 4.0, more exotic platforms were also able to pass 100% of the ACATS tests.

License
The compiler is licensed under the terms of the GNU GPL 3+ with GCC Runtime Library Exception.

All versions leading up to and including 3.15p are licensed under the GMGPL offering similar runtime exceptions. The GMGPL license is GNU GPL 2 with a linking exception that permits software with licenses that are incompatible with the GPL to be linked with the output of Ada standard generic libraries that are supplied with GNAT without breaching the license agreement.

Versions
FSF GNAT is part of most major Linux or BSD distributions and is included in the main GCC Sources.

GNAT Pro is a supported version of GNAT from AdaCore.

In addition to FSF GNAT and AdaCore's GNAT Pro, AdaCore releases additional versions (GNAT-GPL, a public older version of GNAT Pro, and GNAT GAP, a version for AdaCore's educational programs). These AdaCore versions have the runtime exceptions removed, this requires software that is linked with the standard libraries to have GPL-compatible licenses to avoid being in breach of the license agreement.

JGNAT was a GNAT version that compiled from the Ada programming language to Java bytecode. GNAT for dotNET is a GNAT version that compiles from the Ada programming language to Common Language Infrastructure for the .NET Framework and the free and open source implementations Mono and Portable.NET.

title: GNAT