Creators of the Quilt
Born in Lafayette, Indiana on October 11, 1954, and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona, Cleve Jones began his life in an approaching era of social change. His father was a psychologist and his mother a Quaker, a fact that helped Jones avoid being drafted into the Vietnam War. Jones endured a tumultuous childhood coming to terms with his homosexuality and often contemplated suicide after enduring bullying and feelings of isolation. He did not come out to his parents until he was 18. When he read an article on the gay liberation movement in a Life magazine, he realized that there were entire organized communities of LGBT citizens in places where they could live safely.
Inspired, Jones moved to one of these places, San Francisco, in his early twenties and studied political science at San Francisco State University. There, in the early 1970s, he met and befriended pioneer LGBT activist and City Supervisor Harvey Milk, one of the few openly gay elected officials in the United States. Working as a student intern under Milk, Jones joined him in the gay rights movement.
In 1978, Milk took an invitation into the office of fellow City Supervisor Dan White, and was subsequently shot by him. Jones was one of the first to see Milk’s body and recalled the many times Milk had anticipated such an assassination. For many, and especially for Jones, Milk was a mentor and a symbolic martyr of the gay rights movement, and Jones made the decision to dedicate his life to the cause of gay activism. Jones began an annual tradition of candlelight memorials in honor of Harvey Milk and his contributions.
In 1983, Jones co-founded the San Francisco AIDS Foundation due to an increasing awareness in the threat and proliferation of AIDS, especially in the lives of the LGBT community. In 1985, Jones himself was tested positive for HIV. He found out that he had had it since 1978. He would live through the disease, but many of his friends and fellow activists would not.
During the planning of the 1985 candlelight memorial, Jones learned that over 1,000 San Franciscans had perished from AIDS. It was at the end of this service that Jones found his inspiration for the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, though he didn't announce the project for a year.
Since 2005, Jones has worked on his project UNITE HERE, an effort to combat homophobia in the hospitality industry. His work in the LGBT movement continues today.
Mike Smith became interested in AIDS activism after his friend and classmate from Standford University's Graduate School of Bussiness was diagnosed with AIDS in 1984 and died only a year later. He started the AIDS Education Project at Standford and organized a fundraiser on campus that collected $45,000 for AIDS research efforts.
He met Cleve Jones in March 1987 and helped him start the NAMES Project on his own back porch that May. They eventually moved to a larger workshop in San Francisco in July, and Mike became the General Manager of the project.