A deafening silence lasted almost two hours in the Great Hall of the Student Union on Tuesday night, as an audience of almost 400 students and members of the Triangle community heard the life story of Cleve Jones — a man who has lived and breathed the gay rights movement.
An activist, author and powerful speaker, Jones said he feels the gay rights movement continues to be inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy of tolerance and compassion.
Though he was just a child when King died, Jones said he became close to King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, whom he called a fierce champion of the gay rights movement.
Jones was asked to deliver his message of tolerance in honor of Campus Y’s 29th annual Dr. Martin Luther King celebration.
Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt began the night with a compelling introduction. As an openly gay public official, Kleinschmidt said the film “Milk” — the Academy Award winning film about one of the first openly gay elected officials, San Francisco city councilman Harvey Milk — motivated him to run for mayor when he needed inspiration the most.
“I sat in a room with other openly gay officials — Harvey Milk’s legacy — and watched this film,” he said.
“It confirmed for me that I had a role to play.”
Jones began his career as an activist by campaigning and later interning with Milk. He was among the first to discover Milk’s body after Milk and the San Francisco mayor, George Moscone, were assassinated in 1978.
“I thought, ‘It’s over,’” Jones said, swatting at the tears on his face.
He added it wasn’t until that night, when thousands of people carried candles to the steps of City Hall to mourn the death of the mayor and his friend, that Jones felt he could continue to advocate for gay rights.
Today, more than 30 years later, Jones has encountered and overcome almost every form of bigotry imaginable — from death threats to being attacked by skinheads — and still champions gay rights.
He’s even survived his own battle with AIDS.
Throughout the onset of the AIDS epidemic, Jones said he watched in helpless rage as almost all of his friends were ravaged by HIV/AIDS while the government did nothing to curb its the spread of the virus.
“I was desperate to find a way to break through the stupidity and bigotry,” he said.
It wasn’t until the death of his closest friend, Marvin Feldman, that he decided to fight back. He decided to make a quilt and that would memorialize anyone who has died of AIDS.
With more than 40,000 panels memorializing more than 91,000 individuals, the NAMES Foundation’s AIDS Memorial quilt is the largest community arts project in the world.
“Irrevocably, we are all linked — that was the message of Harvey Milk, and that is the message of Dr. King,” Jones said.
29th annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration
Today
Carolina Women’s Center Brown Bag Film Series
Time: noon
Location: Graham Memorial, Room 39
Description: A special screening of the award-winning documentary “Standing on My Sister’s Shoulders.”
Oratorical contest Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Stone Center
Description: Students will present monologues regarding their opinion of how the current generation will continue King’s legacy.
Thursday
Candlelight vigil
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: McCorkle Place, near the Old Well
Keynote lecture with Danny Glover
Time 7:30 p.m.
Location: Memorial Hall
Ticket required; call (919) 843-3333 for Memorial Hall box office information
Friday
“I, Too, Sing America”
Time: 6:30 p.m.
Location: Student Union, Great Hall
Description: Campus organizations will come together in poetry, song and dance based on Langston Hughes’ poem “I, Too, Sing America.”
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
