Harvey Milk

1931-1978

Gay Activist, Politician

When people talk about Harvey Milk, the word "martyr" comes up often.

They called him "the mayor of Castro Street;" he was the first openly gay person elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the city's governing body.

After moving from New York to San Francisco, he opened Castro Camera with Scott Smith. Milk used the storefront as a headquarters from which he helped people with city issues and set the stage for his political career.

In 1973, he decided it was time to run for the Board of Supervisors. He lost. By 1977, though, he was on the Board and playing an important role in the passage of the city's first gay civil rights ordinance. Mayor George Moscone was among those who supported the civil rights protection. In fact, the only supervisor to vote against the measure was Dan White.

Milk feared that his radical politics and outspoken support for his community would get him killed, so he dictated three tapes that were to be played only if he died by assassination. The recordings detailed his wishes and suggestions for how the movement should continue after his death.

On November 27, 1978, the president of the Board of Supervisors announced to gathered reporters, "Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Milk have been shot -- and killed ... Police have a suspect: Supervisor Dan White." Of course, the city was shocked.

Milk said in the tapes that he knew he was a "potential target" for "a person who is insecure, terrified, afraid or very disturbed themselves." He said that after his death, the movement for civil rights should continue.

"It's not about personal gain, not about ego, not about power -- it's about giving those young people out there ... hope," one of the tapes concludes. "You gotta give them hope."

Milk ends a message that is only to be played if he is killed with a call to hope. Perhaps hope while facing death is a good definition of a martyr.