Black History Month: Daily Updates

Marsha P. Johnson (1944 -1992) Human Rights Activist

The life and death of Marsha P. Johnson - like those of Ida B. Wells, Henrietta Lacks, and Nella Larson - were commemorated with a much-belated obituary as part of the New York Times “Overlooked” series. The obituary paints a picture of her life and highlights her legacy:

“She has been praised for her insistent calls for social and economic justice; for working on behalf of homeless street youth ostracized by their families for being gay or otherwise not conforming to traditional ideas about gender; and, later, for her advocacy on behalf of AIDS patients. Some have called her a saint.

Many transgender people have also come to hail Johnson, and her longtime friend and colleague Sylvia Rivera, as pioneering heroes. (The term transgender was not in wide use in Johnson’s lifetime; she usually used female pronouns for herself, but also referred to herself as gay, as a transvestite or simply as a queen.)”

Alongside Sylvia Rivera, Johnson founded STAR, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries - “we needed to do something for our own” recalled Rivera in The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson. STAR began as a series of sit-ins and became STAR House, “the first LGBT youth shelter in North America, … the first trans woman of colour led organisation in the USA… and the first trans sex worker labour organisation.”

Johnson’s activism began in the late sixties. The New York Times writes that she was among the forefront of people to resist police arrest during the Stonewall uprising. Although she famously denied responsibility for throwing the first “shot” at the Stonewall Inn, the story became part of her legacy:

“The story ... was that Marsha Johnson said, 'I got my civil rights' and then threw a shot glass into a mirror and that started the riots. … This became known as the shot glass that was heard around the world.” (David Carter, Pay it No Mind).

The circumstances around Johnson’s death are unclear. In the documentary, The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson, transgender activist Victoria Cruz investigates Johnson’s 1992 drowning, which, at the time was ruled a suicide but then reclassified as death from “undetermined causes.” 

In Pay it No Mind, Bob Kohler recalls the community that came together to celebrate her life. The plan had been to begin at a church and scatter Johnson’s ashes in the river. However, hundreds of people showed up hoping to join the procession, far too many to simply use the sidewalk. Kohler turns to one of the police officers he knew from Christopher Street and says “you've gotta give me the street… Look, it’s for Marsha. And the head-cop looked at me and he said, 'Marsha was a good queen.'” The police closed down 7th Avenue and the procession continued to the river. “It was that kind of effect that Marsha would have.”

In their own words

"History isn't something you look back at and say it was inevitable; it happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities."

"Darling, I want my gay rights now."

"What’s the point of complaining? It don’t get you nowhere."
 

Learn more

WATCH: Pay it No Mind: Marsha P. Johnson (55 min)

LISTEN: “Marsha P. Johnson & Randy Wicker” - Making Gay History podcast (17 min)

READ: “New York City Monument Will Honor Transgender Activists Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera” - Smithsonian