Malcolm (Michaels) Johnson Jr. (1945 - 1992)

Born 24 Aug 1945 in Elizabeth, Union, New Jersey, United States

Ancestors

Died 6 Jul 1992 at age 46 in New York City, New York, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: US Black Heritage Project WikiTree [send private message] and Liz Marshall [send private message]

Marsha P. (Michaels) Johnson Jr. is a part of US Black history. Join: US Black Heritage Project Discuss: black_heritage

Biography

Marsha P. (Michaels) Johnson Jr. is Notable.

Marsha P. Johnson was an American gay liberation activist and drag queen. She was a co-founder of the organization S.T.A.R. (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries).

Marsha Johnson was born Malcolm Michaels Jr. on August 24, 1945, in Elizabeth, Union County, New Jersey,^[1] to Malcolm Michaels Sr., an assembly line worker at General Motors, and Alberta Claiborne, a housekeeper. Malcolm, Alberta and their seven children attended an African Methodist Episcopal Church during Marsha's childhood.^[2][3]

Johnson first began wearing dresses at the age of five but stopped temporarily due to harassment by boys who lived nearby. After graduating from Edison High School (now the Thomas A. Edison Career and Technical Academy) in Elizabeth in 1963, Johnson left home for New York City with $15 and a bag of clothes.^[2] Johnson waited on tables after moving to Greenwich Village in 1966. ^{[4] [5]} After meeting gay people in the city, Johnson finally felt it was possible to be gay and was able to come out.^[6]

Johnson initially used the moniker "Black Marsha" but later decided on the drag queen name "Marsha P. Johnson", getting Johnson from the restaurant Howard Johnson's, stating that the P stood for "pay it no mind."^[5][7]

Marsha became a beloved figure in the gay liberation movement beginning with her involvement at the Stonewall uprising in 1969. In 1970 she co-founded STAR House, a shelter for homeless gay and trans youth where she acted as a "drag mother." From 1987 through 1992, Johnson was an AIDS activist with ACT UP.

Shortly after the 1992 New York Gay Pride parade, on 6 Jul 1992, Johnson's body was discovered in the Hudson River.^[1][2] Police initially ruled the death a suicide, but those who were close to Johnson considered the death suspicious; many claimed that while Johnson did struggle mentally, they believed she was not suicidal.^[8]

Marsha's ashes were spread over the same river where her body was found as a special memorial by her friends.^[9]

In November 2012, activist Mariah Lopez succeeded in getting the New York police department to reopen the case as a possible homicide.^[8] In 2016, Victoria Cruz of the Anti-Violence Project also tried to get Johnson's case reopened, and succeeded in gaining access to previously-unreleased documents and witness statements. She sought out new interviews with witnesses, friends, other activists, and police who had worked the case or had been on the force at the time of Johnson's probable murder. ^[10] Some of her work to find justice for Johnson was filmed by David France for the 2017 documentary The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson.^[11]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} "U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007," database, Ancestry.com, Malcom Michaels Jr, 24 Aug 1945- Jul 1945; Ancestry Record 60901 #19764208 (requires subscription)
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Sewell Chan, "Marsha P. Johnson," obituary, The New York Times, 2018, (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked-marsha-p-johnson.html : accessed 15 May 2022).
3. ↑ "United States Census, 1950," ED 26-70, Elizabeth, Union County, New Jersey, USA; sheet 8, family 79, lines 10-16, Malcom Michaels Jr in Malcolm Michaels household; Ancestry.com Ancestry Record 62308 #166891175 (requires subscription); view for free at Ancestry Sharing Link.
4. ↑ Michael Kasino, documentary, Pay It No Mind - The Life and Times of Marsha P. Johnson, 2012 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjN9W2KstqE : accessed 15 May 2022): event discussed at [47:22 https://youtu.be/rjN9W2KstqE?t=2842]
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Carter, David (May 25, 2010). Stonewall: the riots that sparked the gay revolution. New York, New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9780312671938. OCLC 659681252.
6. ↑ Steve Watson, "Stonewall 1979: The Drag of Politics," The Village Voice, 15 Jun 1979, page 72-73; (https://www.villagevoice.com/2019/06/04/stonewall-1979-the-drag-of-politics/ : accessed 15 May 2022).
7. ↑ Kasino 2012: name discussed at 36:24: "In the early days she tended to go out mainly in semidrag and call herself Black Marsha. (When she later dropped the Black and started calling herself Marsha P. Johnson, she explained that the P. stood for 'Pay it no mind.')"
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1} Jacobs, Shayna (December 16, 2012). "DA reopens unsolved 1992 case involving the 'saint of gay life'". New York Daily News (https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/da-reopens-unsolved-1992-case-involving-saint-gay-life-article-1.1221742 : accessed 15 May 2012).
9. ↑ Kasino 2012, discussed at 52:07.
10. ↑ Desta, Yohana (October 3, 2017). "Meet the Transgender Activist Fighting to Keep Marsha P. Johnson's Legacy Alive". Vanity Fair. (https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/10/the-death-and-life-of-marsha-p-johnson-victoria-cruz : accessed 15 May 2022). Also archived by the Wayback Machine .
11. ↑ IMDB. "The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017)". https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5233558/

"United States 1950 Census", database, FamilySearch (ark:/61903/1:1:6F95-4W3B : Sun Jan 29 22:57:20 UTC 2023), Entry for Alberta Michaels and Charles Michaels, 17 April 1950.

"United States, Social Security Numerical Identification Files (NUMIDENT), 1936-2007", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6K96-NF3R : 10 February 2023), Malcolm Michaels, Jr, .

See also:

• Wikipedia: Marsha P. Johnson
• Wikidata: Item Q6773400