Look, Marsha said she ain’t do it!
Although legend has it that it was Marsha P. Johnson who threw a shot glass at police inside of the Stonewall Inn in NYC in 1969, as an act of resistance against the police who were there harassing patrons, Marsha later said, she didn’t start the riot - she said she came running as fast as she could though once she knew it was happening, because baaaby, she was a fighter and was tired of the BS.
What happened that day at Stonewall (“The Stonewall Uprising”) is considered by many to be the catalyst that launched the modern L.G.B.T. civil rights movement and it was Marsha who would lead the fight in the streets. She, along with co-founder Sylvia Rivera, established one of the country's first safe spaces for transgender and homeless youth, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR). She also tirelessly advocated on behalf of sex workers, prisoners, and people with HIV/AIDS. Marsha’s work was powerful, but it didn’t keep her from a fate that far too many Black women have met. Marsha died in 1992. Her body was recovered in a river in New York and her death was ruled a suicide. Authorities later reclassified the cause, ruling it drowning from undetermined causes. The case remains open, and the mystery of her death reminds us of the ongoing violence black and transgender people face all too often in this country.
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Disclaimer: We do not own the rights to the music played during this broadcast. Original content can be found here:
En Vogue - Free Your Mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7iQbBbMAFE
Jamila Woods - Holy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3MhH2WekcY