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Photographer: Devry Becker Jones (CC0)
Taken: October 1, 2021
Caption: Bust of Marsha P. Johnson in Christopher Park
Additional Description: Legend has it that Marsha P. Johnson, a Black transgender woman, threw the first brick at Stonewall. This legend, while popular, is unverified and possibly unverifiable.

In 1970 she was a co-founder (with Sylvia Rivera) of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), an organization that provided resources and housing for homeless queer youth and sex workers in Lower Manhattan.

Additionally, in the 1980s, she was an organizer for the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT-UP).

Her body was found floating in the Hudson River in 1992. At the time, law enforcement ruled her death a suicide, which has been contested by friends.
Submitted: October 2, 2021, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia.
Database Locator Identification Number: p613552
File Size: 5.997 Megabytes

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