Wilkins’ cunning, which Rustin considered a character strength corresponding to one of Martin Luther King’s weaknesses—an exasperating instinct of avoidance. Rustin had been estranged from King for more than three years, since Adam Clayton Powell’s threat to use Rustin’s homosexuality to blackmail King. King had never spoken to Rustin about the breach—not then, nor in the excited caucuses of the past few weeks, when the idea of the great march had renewed their association.
