Miss Major Griffin-Gracy is a transgender rights activist who has been fighting for transgender rights for over forty years. She’s originally from Chicago but moved to New York City in the 1960s and learned quickly that there was a need for increased safety protections for her and her peers. She helped lead the Stonewall Riots in 1969, and suffered a broken jaw during the police action. She was also part of the rebellion at Attica State Prison where inmates held correctional officers hostage until their demands for better living conditions were discussed. In the 1980s and 1990s, she lived in California and helped her community, which was impacted by the AIDS epidemic. She most recently served as executive director of the Transgender Gender Variant Intersex Justice Project, which helps transgender, gender variant, and intersex people inside and outside of the prison and detention system.
This excerpt is from The Book of Awesome Black Women by Becca Anderson, which is available now through Amazon and Mango Media.
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