A lifelong activist for the rights of marginalized people, Harvey Milk was a leader in the gay rights movement of the 1970s. The son of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, Milk was born in Woodmere, New York but moved to San Francisco as a young adult. In 1978, he became the first openly gay man elected to a major public office in the United States. That same year, he was assassinated. Despite his tragically short career in politics, Milk remains an icon in San Francisco and is considered “a martyr for gay rights” worldwide. His legacy of working for the civil rights of all and building coalitions among diverse groups continues to inspire and inform social justice work today.
Harvey Milk in the Castro. Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library
Harvey Milk
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1930
May 22 – Harvey Bernard Milk is born in Woodmere, NY.
1946
Milk makes the Bay Shore [NY] High School junior varsity football team.
1947
Milk graduates from Bay Shore HS.
1951
Milk graduates from State University (SUNY) at Albany with a degree in Mathematics and joins the U.S. Navy.
1955
Milk is honorably discharged from the U.S. Navy and pursues a career as a high school teacher.
1963
Milk begins a new career with the Wall Street investment firm Bache & Co.
1968
Milk moves to San Francisco with his lover Jack McKinley, who is working on that city’s original staging of the musical Hair; in SF, Milk gets a job in finance.
1969
June 28 – The Stonewall Riots in New York City’s Greenwich Village spark the birth of the Gay Liberation movement.
1970
After publicly burning his BankAmericard, Milk is fired from his job; he moves back to New York City.
1972
Milk moves from New York City back to San Francisco with his lover Scott Smith.
1973
Milk and Smith open the Castro Camera shop in the Castro District.
Allied with Teamsters representative Allan Baird, Milk effects a ban of Coors Beer from bars in the Castro District and elsewhere in the city.
Milk runs for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for the first time and loses.
1974
Milk reorganizes the Castro Village Association of local merchants and helps launch the first Castro Street Fair.
1975
Milk again runs for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and loses.
Milk supports former California State Senator George Moscone in his successful run for Mayor of San Francisco.
1976
Milk is appointed by Mayor Moscone to the Board of Permit Appeals.
Milk later resigns from the position after announcing his bid for California State Assembly.
Milk is instrumental in placing a ballot initiative approved by Mayor Moscone that successfully replaces citywide elections with district elections.
Milk loses the State Assembly election to Art Agnos.
Milk co-founds SF’s Gay Democratic Club (renamed the Harvey Milk Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Democratic Club after his assassination).
1977
June 7 – “Orange Tuesday;” Activist Anita Bryant wins her campaign to overturn Dade County Florida’s gay rights ordinance, effectively mobilizing a decades-long campaign of intolerance against the gay community.
Milk runs for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for a third time in a campaign managed by Anne Kronenberg, winning the seat for District 5, which includes the Castro. He is the first openly gay man ever elected to major public office in America.
1978
January 9 - Milk is sworn into office, as are his fellow newly elected supervisors ex-fireman Dan White (representing District 8, the Excelsior District) and women’s rights advocate Carol Ruth Silver, among others.
Issues that Milk acts on while in office include programs for senior citizens; dog owners cleaning up after their pets; and accessible and comprehensible voting machines for all citizens.
Milk captains the landmark San Francisco gay rights ordinance which is co-sponsored by Carol Silver and passed by the Board of Supervisors (White’s is the only dissenting vote); Mayor Moscone signs the bill into law.
Anita Bryant successfully lobbies for the repeal of gay rights ordinances in St. Paul, MN (April 25), Wichita, KS (May 9), and Eugene, OR (May 23); the Wichita repeal in particular galvanizes Milk and the San Francisco community.
Capitalizing on Bryant’s momentum, California State Senator John Briggs sponsors Proposition 6 (the Briggs Initiative), seeking to ban gays from teaching in California public schools and to remove known homosexuals and their supporters from their posts.
June 25 - The Rainbow Flag, designed by Milk supporter Gilbert Baker as a symbol of unity in the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) community, is unveiled for the first time in San Francisco at the Gay Freedom Day Parade; Milk rides in the parade, encouraging bystanders and TV/radio viewers to “just come on out!”
November 7 – Proposition 6 is defeated, after Milk’s campaign against it (“Don’t Let It Happen Here”) rallies support from California Governor Jerry Brown and the state’s Democratic Party, the Log Cabin Republicans, former California Governor Ronald Reagan, thousands of voters, and President Jimmy Carter.
November 27 – At City Hall, Dan White shoots Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Milk to death; that night, more than 30,000 people march from the Castro to City Hall in a peaceful candlelight vigil.
Milk and Moscone’s closed coffins lie in state at City Hall for several days as thousands of mourners file past them.
December 4 – Supervisor Board President Dianne Feinstein is sworn in as Mayor, succeeding George Moscone.
Harry Britt is appointed to succeed Harvey Milk as the supervisor representing District 5.
1979
May 21 Dan White is convicted by a jury of Voluntary Manslaughter and sentenced to 7 years in prison; the sentence sparks the “White Night Riots” in protest, with clashes between police and citizens leading to police cars being set on fire and the entrance to City Hall being battered.
1984
January 7 – White is paroled from Soledad State Prison after less than 5 years served.
November 1 – The documentary feature The Times of Harvey Milk, directed by Rob Epstein and produced by Richard Schmiechen, screens at the Castro Theatre.
1985
March 25 – The Times of Harvey Milk wins the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
1999
June 14 – Time Magazine names Harvey Milk one of the “Time 100 Heroes and Icons” of the 20th century.
2008
May 19 – California State Assemblyman Mark Leno’s sponsored bill to permanently mark [Milk’s birthday] May 22 as Harvey Milk Day (as a day of special significance, not a state government holiday) is passed by the State Assembly.
May 22 – A sculpture bust of Harvey Milk is unveiled in San Francisco; the Memorial stands in the Ceremonial Rotunda of City Hall and is the first likeness of an openly gay person to be permanently ensconced in a civil building in America.
2009
Stuart Milk, Harvey Milk’s nephew, founds the Harvey Milk Foundation – to empower local, regional, national and global organizations so that they may fully realize the power of Harvey Milk’s story, style, and collaborative relationship building.