JOHNSON, MARSHA P. (24 August 1945–6 July 1992), African American transgender activist who left an indelible mark on the movement for LGBTQ+ rights through her unwavering commitment to liberation and advocacy. Fondly remembered in the queer community as a “drag mother” and the “Saint of Christopher Street,” Johnson provided vital support to marginalized youth in New York City, particularly in Greenwich Village, where she became a central figure in the burgeoning queer enclave.
Born Malcolm Michaels Jr. in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the fifth of seven children, Johnson grew up in a working-class family. Her father worked on the assembly line for General Motors and her mother was a housekeeper. The family attended Mount Teman African Methodist Episcopal Church; Johnson remained a practicing Christian throughout her life. From the age of five, Johnson liked wearing clothes made for women but stopped as a teenager because of bullying. Despite facing adversity, Johnson remained resilient in her gender identity. At seventeen she moved to New York City, where she found solace and acceptance within the vibrant LGBTQ+ community of Greenwich Village.
Arriving in the city with only $15 to her name, Johnson navigated the challenges of survival, taking on waitressing gigs and performing as a drag queen. She adopted the name Marsha P. Johnson and began dressing full-time in women’s clothes, assembling colorful thrift-store outfits and often adorning her head with a crown of flowers. Years later Johnson would joke that the “P” in her name stood for “Pay it no mind,” it being her gender identity. Johnson forged lasting friendships in the Village, including with Sylvia Rivera, with whom she would cofound transgender-rights organizations.
Even in the bohemian atmosphere of Greenwich Village it was not easy to live on the margins, and Johnson faced persistent discrimination and hardship. She engaged in panhandling and sex work to make ends meet, frequently enduring arrests and harassment at the hands of law enforcement. These experiences only strengthened Johnson’s commitment to fight for her rights and for those of her queer brothers and sisters.
Johnson was a prominent participant in the Stonewall Uprising of 1969, a watershed moment in the movement for LGBTQ+ rights. The uprising, sparked by a police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a popular gay bar in Greenwich Village, galvanized the queer community to resist police harassment and brutality. “We were [...] throwing over cars and screaming in the middle of the street ’cause we were so upset ’cause they closed that place,” Johnson recalled in a 1989 interview. Johnson was rumored to have thrown the first brick at Stonewall, but she denied this, stating that she had not arrived until the action was already underway. The protests, which lasted for six days, ignited the gay-liberation movement; several gay-rights groups emerged in its aftermath, and the first Gay Pride Liberation March took place in New York on the anniversary of Stonewall.
In 1970 Johnson and Rivera cofounded the radical mutual-aid group Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR). STAR was a pioneering organization that provided support and advocacy for homeless transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals, offering shelter, food, and other essential services at a time when they were highly marginalized and neglected by society. The most radical of its projects was the STAR house, for which Johnson and Rivera often paid rent using money they made as sex workers. Rivera said, “Marsha would give the blouse off her back if you asked for it. She would give you her last dollar. She would take off her shoes. I’ve seen her do all these things.”
Johnson was known equally for her iconic artistic persona and her undying commitment to queer liberation. Performing for decades as a drag queen in the Hot Peaches troupe, she captivated audiences with her largely improvised shows. In 1975 Andy Warhol immortalized her drag persona for “Ladies and Gentlemen,” a series of silkcreened portraits of queens from the Gilded Grape nightclub. During the AIDS crisis, which began in the 1980s, Johnson helped spread awareness, raise money, and look after sick friends, even as she herself was diagnosed with HIV.
Despite her lifelong contributions to the LGBTQ+ movement, Johnson faced discrimination and marginalization within both the queer community and society at large. She grappled with poverty, homelessness, and mental-health issues for much of her life. On July 6, 1992, Johnson’s body was found floating in the Hudson River. Her death was initially ruled a suicide by the authorities, but friends and advocates suggested that foul play was involved. Later that year the case was reclassified from drowning to unknown causes, and in 2012 it was reopened, though no further conclusions have been reached.
In recent years Johnson has gained renewed recognition and appreciation. She has been the subject of film projects, including Happy Birthday, Marsha! (2017) by Tourmaline and Sasha Wortzel and The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson (2017) by David France. In 2019 New York City announced plans to erect an official monument honoring Johnson and Rivera in Greenwich Village. Two years later, frustrated by the city’s lack of follow-through, a group of activists including the artist Jesse Pallota took it upon themselves to install a life-size bust of Johnson in Christopher Park. The statue received widespread public support and, eventually, official approval. In 2020 Brooklyn’s East River Park was renovated and renamed Marsha P. Johnson State Park, becoming the first New York state park commemorating a queer person.