By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Thursday, June 25, 2015
Martin Luther King III will honor the late gay civil rights pioneer Bayard Rustin during Logo TV second annual Logo Trailblazer Honor awards show, airing Saturday at 8 p.m.
Logo TV, which caters to the LBGT community, gives the award to LBGT pioneers. Rustin, who died in 1987 at age 75, was an openly gay black man who introduced Martin Luther King Jr. to the nonviolent philosophies of Ghandi, participated in the Freedom Rides and helped organize the March on Washington. His role in the civil rights movement was often downplayed due to homophobia.
His surviving partner Walter Naegle will accept the Trailblazer Honor on his behalf. Georgia Rep. John Lewis, D.C. Rep. Eleanor Holmes-Norton, and screenwriter and director Dustin Lance Black ("Milk") will be part of a special video tribute to Rustin.
"Bayard Rustin was one of the great strategists and organizers of our time and he worked very closely with my father,” said King III, in a phone interview from New York an hour before the awards show began taping Thursday evening. “My family and I have always had great respect for who he was. When all of this was happening, he was openly gay, which some say was way ahead of where society was. He did not allow his principles to be compromised by society. He was always trudging forward fighting for the rights of the oppressed. He was always standing up for those who in some cases had no voice."
King admitted he was too young to have a particularly close relationship with Rustin back in the day, but he admired what he did later in life. (Rustin died in 1987.)
He said he and his immediate family have long been supporters of gay rights and marriage equality (although he has an outspoken cousin Alveda King who is against gay marriage.)
King said Rustin was an optimist and would be grateful that a network like Logo (which launched in 2005) would exist today.
Former Atlantan Raven-Symone, the actress who recently joined ABC's "The View," will introduce King.
Atlanta's Violet Chachki, who won Logo's "RuPaul's Drag Race" earlier this month, will also be a presenter. And former Athens resident Tituss Burgess (Netflix's "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt") will present as well.
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
TV PREVIEW
"Logo Trailblazer Awards," 8 p.m. Saturday, Logo
***
Credit: Rodney Ho
Credit: Rodney Ho
Former Atlantan and "Saturday Night Live" alum Finesse Mitchell is hosting the test run of a show called "Beat the Champions" on Fox June 30.
The concept is simple: amateurs try to beat professional athletes in their respective sports. The amateurs can go head to head with the pros "handicapped" to various degrees. The more hamstrung the professionals are, the less money the amateurs win. They could pocket as much as $100,000.
NBA star Scottie Pippen, Olympic swimmer Missy Franklin and "Super Bowl" champ Rob Gronkowski are in the test episode.
"These amateurs are people who think they got a bum deal or ended up with a bum knee," said Mitchell. "We're giving them the opportunity to face off against legends."
Arthur Smith, a producer for "Beat the Champions," "Hell's Kitchen" and "American Ninja Warrior," knew Finesse from a few years ago when Finesse participated in a cheesy Fox dating show called "The Choice" in 2012.
He continues to do stand-up but does not yet have an Atlanta date. But he recently shot a recurring role on HBO's upcoming new show "Brothers in Atlanta" about two guys trying to make it big in entertainment. "I play the nemesis of the main guy," Mitchell said. "We are both back-up singers for a group where Maya Rudolph is lead singer. We worked together on 'SNL' so it was great to see her again."
Mitchell said the show will hit HBO sometime in early 2016, presumably after "Game of Thrones."
He also has part on Cameron Crowe's 'Roadies" comedy on Showtime.
Mitchell joined "SNL" at the same time as fellow former Atlantan Kenan Thompson but only stayed three years. Thompson, 13 years in, is one of the longest-running "SNL" players in history. "This might be his last year," Mitchell said, referencing the 2015-16 season.
Although he didn't make it on stage during the massive 40th anniversary celebration of "SNL," he got to see the celebration and attend the after party, rubbing shoulders with Prince, Paul McCartney, Miley Cyrus and Dave Chappelle. "I hung out with Derek Jeter and Jon Bon Jovi," he said. "That's how crazy it was!"
Mitchell isn't a huge star yet but hopes to be like Morgan Freeman: "I want to be working when I'm 45, 55, 65. If I had money when I was 20, I'd be broke now!"
The last time I spoke with him in 2012, he was divorced. He has since remarried to Adris Debage in 2013 and has a three-month-old daughter Elle Kaye.
TV SPECIAL
"Beat the Champions," 9 p.m., Tuesday, June 30, Fox
About the Author
