The Murder of Harvey Milk

AI True Crime: The Murder of Harvey Milk

Harvey Milk became the first openly gay elected official in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. His short political career, his battles over gay rights, the Briggs Initiative, and his assassination alongside Mayor George Moscone made him one of the defining figures in modern LGBTQ history.

GLBT Historical Society — Harvey Milk Primary Source Sethttps://www.glbthistory.org/primary-source-set-harvey-milk

The GLBT Historical Society maintains one of the most important collections of primary material relating to Milk, including photographs, oral histories, contemporary newspaper coverage, audio recordings, memorial material, and documentation of the reaction to Dan White’s trial.

GLBT Historical Society — Harvey Milk Recorded Political Willhttps://www.glbthistory.org/harvey-milk-audio

Approximately ten days after his election, Milk recorded a political will discussing what should happen if he were assassinated. The surviving recording has become one of the most famous primary documents associated with his life and death.

GLBT Historical Society — Harvey Milk Oral Historyhttps://docs.glbthistory.org/oh/MilkHarvey_77_001_web.pdf

An extensive contemporary interview with Milk from approximately 1977, covering his political views, organizing, gay politics, and his own experiences before his election to the Board of Supervisors.

GLBT Historical Society — Harvey Milk Research Guidehttps://www.glbthistory.org/research-guides

The Society’s research guides provide access to archival collections relating to Milk, San Francisco electoral politics, gay-rights activism, policing, Pride, and other subjects surrounding the events of 1978 and 1979.

GLBT Historical Society — Primary Source Setshttps://www.glbthistory.org/primary-source-sets

The Society’s larger digital primary-source collection includes material on Harvey Milk, the Briggs Initiative, policing and resistance, San Francisco Pride, and other movements and events that provide context for Milk’s political career.

GLBT Historical Society — Policing and Resistance Primary Sourceshttps://www.glbthistory.org/primary-source-set-policing-and-resistance

Archival material covering the relationship between San Francisco’s LGBTQ community and law enforcement, including a 1979 radio program about the White Night riots and documentation of subsequent hearings concerning police violence.

National Park Service — Blue and “Other Than Honorable” Dischargeshttps://www.nps.gov/articles/000/blue-and-other-than-honorable-discharges.htm

The National Park Service discusses Harvey Milk’s military service and discharge as part of the broader history of gay and lesbian people in the United States military. It also summarizes his later political career and assassination.

On November 27, 1978, former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White entered City Hall and killed Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. White was later convicted of voluntary manslaughter rather than murder.

The verdict on May 21, 1979 triggered the White Night riots, during which demonstrators clashed with police around San Francisco City Hall and police later moved into the Castro district.

GLBT Historical Society — White Night Riots / “No Apologies”https://www.glbthistory.org/shop-apparel-and-gifts/no-apologies-t-shirt

The Historical Society provides background on the reaction to White’s manslaughter conviction, including the destruction at City Hall, burned police vehicles, subsequent police actions in the Castro, and the political divisions that followed.

For more information on Harvey Milk archival holdings, the GLBT Historical Society also maintains the Harvey Milk and Scott Smith Collection, while the San Francisco Public Library’s James C. Hormel LGBTQIA Center holds the Harvey Milk Archives–Scott Smith Collection.

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