Bright orange flames lick the walls of a bar in Greenwich Village, but the sweltering heat does nothing to sway the determination of thousands of people, fighting for their rights. This, is the first night of the Stonewall Riots. These riots are considered one of the biggest leaps for gay rights, especially when it occurred in 1969. Unfortunately, most of the LGBTQ+ community does not know who fought for their freedoms that night. However, there is one woman, by the name of Marsha P. Johnson, who is considered to be the beginning of those riots. Marsha P. Johnson is also considered one of, if not the, most influential members of LGBTQ+ history. Her story was a sad one, filled with trials and difficulties. Through the difficulties she overcame, her life in New York, her involvement in the riots, and her other work in the community, Marsha P. Johnson was a life of great influence in the LGBTQ+ community and American history.
As time has passed, many things have changed for members of the LGBTQ+ community in America. In Johnson’s time, according to “Marsha P. Johnson, a Transgender Pioneer and Activist,” a New York Times article by Sewell Chan, around the time of the Stonewall Riots, criminalization of gay people was quite frequent. One example of this was same-sex dancing. At the time, this was prohibited in public. According to “Stonewall Riots,” an article by history.com, members of the LGBTQ+ community would gather in gay bars (Stonewall) because regular bars were prohibited from serving them (Chan). However, these were not the only toils Marsha P. Johnson faced in her life. The largest portion of her life, Johnson spent homeless and destitute, having to turn to prostitution for money (Chan). Hugh Ryan wrote, in “Power to the People: Exploring Marsha P. Johnson's Queer Liberation,” that she also depended on charity. During her time in the streets, Marsha P. Johnson met her best friend, Sylvia Rivera at the age of eighteen (Ryan). This was only six years before the Stonewall Riots, and Johnson recounted that she’d only had some clothes and fifteen dollars on her person at the time (Chan). Johnson’s work led to her arrest several times, so much so, that she lost count (Chan).
However, these were not the only trials Marsha P. Johnson faced during her life in New York City. Not only was Johnson a black, queer woman, but she also suffered from mental illnesses. Marsha P. Johnson often stated, “I may be crazy, but that don’t make me wrong,” after her first series of break downs during the 1970s (Chan). Michael Kasino, who was the director of “Pay It No Mind – The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson,” which he posted a section of on his YouTube account, consisted of interviews between friends of Marsha P. Johnson and Johnson herself. One Stonewall veteran, Martin Boyce, told the interviewer this about Johnson, “Her experience was the living embodiment of human rights… Everything was against you in those days.” (Kasino)
Marsha P. Johnson found and created some good in her New York life, however. Human rights activist Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt said that he would see Johnson be crowned holy by the Indian people at the flower market in New York. They would even let her sleep under their tables because, as one man told Lanigan-Schmidt, “She’s holy.” (Kasino) Though the reason Johnson was deemed holy is unknown, it may have had to do something with her kindness. Many of Marsha P. Johnson’s friends spoke, not only in Kasino’s documentary, about the woman’s kind and generous nature. James Gallagher, a friend of Johnson’s, said “…say they would give her some money. Two minutes later she’d give it to someone else…She’d say “Here, honey, get yourself something to eat.”” (Kasino)
The accomplishment Marsha P. Johnson is most known for is her involvement in the Stonewall Riots. There was not only one night of rioting at the Stonewall Inn, but rather six nights (Ryan). It all began on the morning of July 28, 1969, when New York police officers began a raid at Stonewall Inn. Stonewall Inn is a gay bar that resides in the Greenwhich Village of New York City (Stonewall). When officers began roughly arresting patrons at the bar, others at the bar and residents living nearby began to clash with the police (Stonewall). When one lesbian, according to Chrysanthemum Tran in “It Doesn't Matter Who Threw the First Brick at Stonewall,” was hit by a police officer over the head, she shouted for the crowd to act (Tran), and those gathered around the paddy wagon began throwing pennies and cobblestones (Stonewall) at the police.
There are, however, questions whether Marsha P. Johnson was the first to fight back against the police. According to both Johnson and Rivera, they arrived at the Inn after the rioting had begun. However, they did join the rioting against the police (Tran). “1969 when the Stonewall Riots started, that’s when I started my little rioting,” were the words spoken by Marsha P. Johnson during an interview nearly twenty-three years after the Stonewall Riots (Kasino). No matter what the truth may be, crediting such a momentous occasion to a single person would be denying the work of other activists.
While Marsha P. Johnson may not be the leader of the Stonewall Riots she is deemed, she does still deserve credit for her other work for the LGBTQ+ community. The same year as the Stonewall Riots, Johnson began a project called STAR with friend Sylvia Rivera. STAR stood for Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (Chan). Unfortunately, this house created for homeless transgender women was unable to remain open (Ryan). Johnson was also a model for Andy Warhol’s “Ladies and Gentlemen” screen prints (Chan). She was also invited, in 1980, to be one of the few to ride in the lead car of the pride parade (Chan). Unfortunately for the LGBTQ+ community, this was also the time of the AIDS crisis. Marsha P. Johnson was, herself, an advocate for AIDS, and could be found laid in front of the Virgin Mary in her grief for the friends she lost (Chan).
After a life filled with tribulations, both in her personal life and through her work as a rights advocate, Marsha P. Johnson was found drowned in the Hudson River. This was one afternoon of July 1992. Though it was originally ruled a suicide by New York police, her friends believed this to be a lie (Ryan). No matter the true ruling of her death, Marsha P. Johnson lived a life fighting for gay rights. She did this by simply surviving through the difficulties of her life, the kindness she spread in her corner of New York, her involvement in the Stonewall Rights, and the work she did in other parts of the LGBTQ+ community. These attributes of her life make her the most influential person in American history, especially in regards to the LGBTQ+ community. Amid the flames and swarming masses of a people pushed too far, Marsha P. Johnson’s voice rang clear for her rights.