marsha p johnson primary source

Read about our approach to external linking. The flagrant disregard for the life of someone who was Black and queer caused outrage in the community at the time, in an early echo of the type of purpose that powers the Black Lives Matter Movement. She was 46 at the time of her death. "[51][52], During another incident around this time Johnson was confronted by police officers for hustling in New York. [75][76], Johnson's suspicious death occurred during a time when anti-LGBT violence was at a peak in New York City, including bias crime by police. The Village AIDS Memorial, on the other hand, attempts to reach a higher ideal, and with names of actual New Yorkers who died, theres no denying the diversity of the LGBTQ community is represented with this memorial. [81], In December 2002, a police investigation resulted in reclassification of Johnson's cause of death from "suicide" to "undetermined". "I want people to stand beneath the halo and know that they can be like her. [6][10][11] Though some have mistakenly credited Johnson for starting the riots, Johnson was always forthcoming about having not been present when the riots began. [41] Only weeks later, Johnson would also turn up dead under similar circumstances. The Journalism in Action website allows students to investigate the role journalism has played in U.S. history and what it . [11] The riots reportedly started at around 1:20 that morning after Storm DeLarverie fought back against the police officer who attempted to arrest her that night. Sources:Goodin, Cal. [69] When asked about religion in the last interview, Johnson said "I use Jesus Christ the most in my prayers, most of the time." Our episode on drag queen and activist Marsha P. Johnson is coming out tomorrow! (A drag queen is a man who dresses as a woman to entertain others.) Marsha was assigned male at birth, but described herself as living life as a woman, and worked tirelessly to support her trans community. [23][24] After Johnson began hanging out with the street hustlers near the Howard Johnson's at 6th Avenue and 8th Street, their life changed. About Press 2021 Impact Report Donate Subscribe to our Newsletter Resources/ Organization This website uses cookies to improve your experience. [31] Johnson was tall, slender and often dressed in flowing robes and shiny dresses, red plastic high heels and bright wigs, which tended to draw attention. These stats were sourced hereand here. After completing high school in 1963, he moved to New York, New York. Marsha P. Johnson grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey, with her mother. Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries by Leslie Feinberg (2006). Birth Date: 24 Aug 1945. Marsha picketing Bellevue Hospital to protest their treatment of queer people c.1970, holding a sign reading Power to the people. STAR provided services including shelter (the first was a trailer truck) to homeless LGBTQ people in New York City, Chicago, California and England for a few years in the early 1970s but eventually disbanded. Please note: Text within images is not translated, some features may not work properly after translation, and the translation may not accurately convey the intended meaning. [45] Carter, however, concluded that Robinson had given several different accounts of the night and in none of the accounts was Johnson's name brought up, possibly in fear that if he publicly credited the uprising to Johnson, then Johnson's well-known mental state and gender nonconforming, "could have been used effectively by the movement's opponents". She announced in a June 26, 1992 interview that she had been H.I.V. Marsha was devoutly spiritual, confessing: I practice the Catholic religion because the Catholic religion is part of the sangria (blood) of the saints, which says that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ.. Provo, UT, US: Ancestry.com". She was identified as male at birth. Much of Marsha's life was dedicated to helping others, despite suffering several mental health issues. I cant explore the biases of all of them in a blog post, but in the case of history in general, and something as contentious as Stonewall in particular, I encourage you to consult multiple sources and think critically about what theirsource is, what theyre saying and why. Copyright 2019 Marsha P. Johnson Institute. In her own words, during a fated interview just 11 days before her death, Marsha expressed: How many people have died for these two little statues to be put in a park to recognize gay people! By 1966, she was waiting tables, engaging in sex work, and living on the streets of the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Johnson's friend Sasha McCaffrey added, "I would find her in the strangest churches. As an African American trans woman, Johnson has consistently been overlooked both as a participant in the Stonewall uprising and more generally, LGBTQ activism. From the website: "The Marsha P. Johnson Institute (MPJI) protects and defends the human rights of BLACK transgender people. Despite this, following the events at Stonewall, Johnson and her friend .css-47aoac{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#A00000;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-47aoac:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}Sylvia Rivera co-founded the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) and they became fixtures in the community, especially in their commitment to helping homeless transgender youth. That summer Saturday, their anger reached a breaking point after the police returned to Stonewall Inn for the second time in two days. She stated that the middle initial stood for pay it no mind, a phrase she often used when questioned about her gender or lifestyle. Marsha P. Johnson Biography, Biography.com, December 14, 2017, https://www.biography.com/people/marsha-p-johnson-112717; Sewell Chan, Marsha P. Johnson A transgender pioneer and activist who was a fixture of Greenwich Village street life, The New York Times.com, March 8, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked-marsha-p-johnson.html; Eric Marcus, Marsha P. Johnson & Randy Wicker, Making Gay History, March 2, 2017, https://makinggayhistory.com/podcast/episode-11-johnson-wicker/. The two most extensive sources on Marsha are both documentaries: Pay It No Mind- Michael Kasinos 2012 documentary. Johnson variably identified as gay, as a transvestite, and as a queen (referring to drag queen or "street queen"). This is an excellent place to start reading about STAR - its a collection put together in 2012 of a whole host of writings and interviews from the 1970s. [72] Agosto Machado continues, "She was making offerings of flowers and change to King Neptune as an appeasement to help her friends who are on the other side. This documentary uses 1992 interview footage taken with Marsha just weeks before her death, as well as a lot of footage of people who knew her talking about her. [6] Johnson was known as the "mayor of Christopher Street"[13] due to being a welcoming presence in the streets of Greenwich Village. Activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera were on the front lines of the fight for trans rights from as early as the 1960s when the movement was just beginning to gain traction. [50][6] During a gay rights rally at New York City Hall in the early '70s, photographed by Diana Davies, a reporter asked Johnson why the group was demonstrating, Johnson shouted into the microphone, "Darling, I want my gay rights now! [41], Though generally regarded as "generous and warmhearted" and "saintly" under the Marsha persona, Johnson's angry, violent side could sometimes emerge when Johnson was depressed or under severe stress. [41], In 1992, George Segal's sculpture, Gay Liberation was moved to Christopher Park as part of the new Gay Liberation Monument. "[29] Johnson distinguishes this from transsexual, defining transsexuals as those who are on hormones and getting surgery. VideoCounty Antrim pupils record special coronation hymn. A pair of women seated, two men standing, with nothing really explicitly gay about any of them. Andy Warhol featured her in a 1975 screen print portfolio of drag queens and transgender merrymakers at the nightclub, Gilded Grape. [45] In the 1979 Village Voice article, "The Drag of Politics", by Steven Watson, and further elaborated upon by Stonewall historian Carter, it had perhaps been for this reason that other activists had been reluctant at first to credit Johnson for helping to spark the gay liberation movement of the early 1970s. This was the source of my direct quotes from Randy. Community Standards Rican trans woman Victoria Cruz. Marsha P. Johnson (August 24, 1945 July 6, 1992), also known as Malcolm Michaels Jr.,[3][4] was an American gay liberation[6][7] activist and self-identified drag queen. The Marsha P. Johnson Institute (MPJI) protects and defends the human rights of BLACK transgender people. [45], Carter writes that Robin Souza had reported that fellow Stonewall veterans and gay activists such as Morty Manford and Marty Robinson had told Souza that on the first night, Johnson "threw a shot glass at a mirror in the torched bar screaming, 'I got my civil rights'". However, none of Johnson's friends or relatives believed Johnson was suicidal. In New York, Marsha struggled to make ends meet. [74], Shortly after the 1992 Gay pride parade, Johnson's body was discovered floating in the Hudson River. All rights reserved. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. 580 volunteers each say one of the names from the 580 plaques of the #VillageAIDSMemorial. Some felt that it was more common for this to happen under Johnson's "male persona as Malcolm". Careers Marsha P. Johnson was an African American drag performer and social activist. and AIDS, and gay and transgender rights. She is credited for being an instigator in the Stonewall riots. These events have been collectively described as a riot, a rebellion, a protest, and an uprising. Whatever the label, this was certainly a watershed moment in LGBT history. One of Johnson's most notable direct actions occurred in August 1970, staging a sit-in protest at Weinstein Hall at New York University alongside fellow GLF members after administrators canceled a dance when they found out that it was sponsored by gay organizations. She worked both as a waitress and a sex worker. We're not around right now. "[28] In an interview with Allen Young, in 1972's, Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation, Johnson discussed being a "Street Transvestite Action Revolutionary", saying, "A transvestite is still like a boy, very manly looking, a feminine boy. She had $15 and a bag of clothes. It was common for young gay and trans people to be kicked out of their family homes by their parents. LGBTQ+ stands for lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer. While she may not have started the riots, she was a major player in the LGBTQ rights movement and community during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. [6] In 1973, Johnson and Rivera were banned from participating in the gay pride parade by the gay and lesbian committee who were administering the event stating they "weren't gonna allow drag queens" at their marches claiming they were "giving them a bad name". A feature photo of Johnson in this article shows Johnson in a flowing wig and makeup, and a translucent shirt, pants and parka highlighting the ways that, quoting Kate Millett's Sexual Politics, White says, "she is both masculine and feminine at once. [6] Their response was to march defiantly ahead of the parade. Marshas death sits within the wider context of transphobic violence "[63], Johnson remained devoutly religious in later life, often lighting candles and praying at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Hoboken,[64] saying in 1992: "I practice the Catholic religion because the Catholic religion is part of the Santera of the saints, which says that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ. Notes:[1] Marsha's body was recovered from the Hudson River. Privacy Policy The birth of the Village AIDS Memorial owes as much to community support from the likes of Marsha P. Johnson as it does to the miraculous AIDS hospice created by Saint Mother Teresa. Marsha was a founder of STAR - the Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries - which provided food, housing, legal aid, and other necessities to homeless trans youth. In addition to soup kitchens, the Church of Saint Veronica hosted gay Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and a food hall serving breakfast and lunch to over 40 AIDS patients at a time. We are very excited to be coming back from hiatus tomorrow just in time for Pride Month! Marsha P. Johnson (Left) and Sylvia Rivera (Right), Gay Pride Parade, New York City, 1973. They reclassified her death as drowning from undetermined causes, but the case remained unsolved. Considering the proximity that the Church of Saint Veronica has to the Stonewall Inn, its important to recognize that it was Trans, non-binary, and Queer People of Color who initiated and led the uprising that began on June 28, 1969, and that lasted throughout the following six days and nights, ultimately sparking the birth of the Gay Liberation Movement. Andrew Cuomo dedicated a seven-acre waterfront park in Brooklyn to Marsha P. Johnson, the first state park dedicated to an LGBTQ historic figure and a transgender woman of color. Homeless, she turned to prostitution to survive and soon found a like-minded community in the bawdy nightlife of Christopher Street. Though she never saw it, Marsha would have approved of the fact that the Village AIDS Memorial remembered so many AIDS victims by name. Finally, she decided shed make her own fun and started checking out the local scene. The Marsha P. Johnson Institute is a fiscally sponsored project of Social Good Fund, a California nonprofit corporation and registered 501 (c) (3) organization, Tax ID (EIN) 46-1323531. June is Pride Month, where people all over the world come together to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and raise awareness for inequalities that still stand today. In 2019, the head of New York's Police Department apologised for their actions, saying, "the actions taken by the NYPD were wrong". We are lucky enough to have a fair bit of other video and audio featuring Marsha or people who knew her: Randy Wickers Youtube channelhas a whole lot of videos about US queer history, including some of or about Marsha. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. If you listened to our podcast on the Stonewall Riots, and youre keen to learn more, heres a list of the sources that I used when researching the episode. She was a pioneer of the gay rights movement in the late 1960s and spent the following two decades advocating for equal . Death Date: Jul 1992. PROTECT AND DEFEND THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF BLACK TRANS PEOPLE! [60], Between 1980 and Johnson's death in 1992, Johnson lived with a friend, Randy Wicker, who had invited Johnson to stay the night one time when it was "very cold outabout 10 degrees [Fahrenheit]" (12C), and Marsha had just never left. Race: Black. 580 plaques is nowhere near representative of the over 100 thousand who died in NYC from HIV/AIDS, but it still makes a far larger dent than the four (its important to acknowledge) White statues commemorating the Gay Liberation Movement inside Christopher Park in front of the Stonewall Inn. [Image: Twenty years later, in 2012, campaigner Mariah Lopez was successful in getting the New York police department to reopen Marsha's case as a possible murder. Tell students that the text displayed is a statement by directors Tourmaline and Sasha Wortzel on their short film Happy Birthday Marsha!, which depicts the life of trans activist Marsha P. Johnson in the hours prior to the Stonewall Rebellion. Its available on Netflix. "I was no one, nobody, from Nowheresville until I became a drag queen. After translating an article, all tools except font up/font down will be disabled. Were very excited and we cant wait to share this with you! Watch It", "Here I am marching with Jon Jon and Miss Marsha one sunny Gay Day. In a 1992 interview, Johnson described being the young victim of rape by a thirteen-year-old boy. "The Unsung Heroines of Stonewall" National Parks Conservation Association Blog, October 1, 2020. [55], By 1966, Johnson lived on the streets[2] and engaged in survival sex. Despite her difficulties with mental illness and numerous police encounters, whenever she was asked what the P in her name stood for and when people pried about her gender or sexuality, she quipped back with pay it no mind. Her forthright nature and enduring strength led her to speak out against injustices. After the NYPD reopened the case, the police reclassified Johnson's cause of death from "suicide" to undetermined. Terms and Conditions The same safe and trusted content for explorers of all ages. [6], Johnson's body was found floating in the Hudson River in 1992. Johnson and Rivera acted as house mothers, guiding and protecting the young people. The Marsha P. Johnson Institute is a fiscally sponsored project of Social Good Fund, a California nonprofit corporation and registered 501(c)(3) organization, Tax ID (EIN) 46-1323531. [image: black-and-white photo of Marsha P Johnson. This is where we get a lot of first-hand information from Marsha and most of the quotes of hers which I mentioned in the episode. Michael Dillon was born on the 1st of May in England in 1915. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. Together we did", "Exploding the Myths of Stonewall Gay City News", "Gay History Month- June 28,1969: The REAL History of the Stonewall Riots", "Marsha P Johnson Carols for Ma & Pa Xmas Presents", "Gay rights activists Sylvia Ray Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, Barbara Deming, and Kady Vandeurs at City Hall rally for gay rights", "Marsha P. Johnson (19441992) Activist, Drag Mother. We can be as active and resilient as Marsha P. Johnson because our fights are far from over." She was tragically found dead on July 6, 1992 at the age of 46. That year we had 1,300 reports of bias crime. Choosing a name is a rite of passage for many transgender people, and she tried on a few before settling on Marsha P. Johnson.

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