Marsha P. Johnson

Who was Marsha P. Johnson?

Marsha P. Johnson was a Black American transgender rights activist, born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, named Malcolm Michaels, Jr. at birth and was a popular figure in New York City's gay and art scene from the 1960s to the 1990s.

One of the city's best known drag queens of the times, Johnson was a leader in clashes with the police amid the Stonewall Riots. She was a co-founder, along with Sylvia Rivera, of Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries in the early 1970s. She also was the "mother" of S.T.A.R. House along with Sylvia, getting together food and clothing to help support the young drag queens and trans women living in the house on the Lower East Side of New York.

Once, appearing in a court the judge asked Marsha, "What does the 'P' stand for?", Johnson gave her customary response "Pay it No Mind." This phrase became her trademark. In 1974 Marsha P. Johnson was photographed by famed artist Andy Warhol, as part of a "ladies and gentlemen" series of polaroids featuring drag queens. An interview with Marsha P.