From the upcoming
Randy Wicker & Marsha P. Johnson Papers

In 1982, gay activist & political button king Randy Wicker invited his friend Willie to live with him in Hoboken. Shortly after, Willie invited his friend, Marsha P. Johnson, to sleep on the floor of Randy’s living room. She actually preferred the floor, because it felt better on her back. Randy wrote in his annual holiday letter, “Meanwhile, back at ‘Hotel Wicker,’ Hoboken’s finest ‘house,’ …I’ve taken in two roommates. One is a 37-year-old black transvestite hooker with an arrest record going back to 1963. That’s Malcolm, but everyone calls her ‘Marsha.’”

After this issue, Randy’s annual letters filled with color. Literally, because he began pasting in tons of polaroids from his adventures with Willie, Marsha, his longtime partner David Combs, and the crew at his lamp shop Uplift Lighting. (See below for 2 pages each of photos from the 1983 and 1984 letters.) Randy also told stories in his letters about Marsha’s day-to-day hustle as a sex worker, her frequent arrests, and occasional mental breakdowns. In 1983 he wrote, “Marsha still gets arrested every now and then for hooking in drag on the West Side Highway but the NYC jails are so full they let her go after a couple days. We’re truly thankful for the crime wave.” She filled Randy’s life with joy, and it’s because of her that he became a trans activist.

After Marsha was found dead in the Hudson River, Randy began printing off petitions demanding justice.

The police had ruled Marsha's death a suicide, but as you can read at the top of those petitions below, she was being harassed by a group of men near the Christopher Street piers where her body was found 36 hours later. Randy set up tables in Christopher Park, outside the Stonewall, and hundreds of people signed the petitions. He set up a table outside of his lamp shop through the winter of '92, still taking signatures. You can download the complete “Demand Justice” petitions here, and the “Friends of Marsha P. Johnson” petitions here. The police department later rescinded the "suicide" designation and changed her cause of death to a "drowning of an undetermined nature." The police never solved the case.

Randy Wicker also put out a petition calling for a monument to Marsha in the Village. Download those “Count Me In” petitions here. A monument was finally erected for Marsha in Christopher Park nearly 30 years later, a sculpture by Jesse Pallotta. They named their piece after a line from Randy Wicker’s 1984 holiday letter: “I’d seriously considered titling this year’s letter: ‘A Love Letter to Marsha.’”

Randy went on to write, “Yes, Marsha—more than anyone—makes me laugh when I am sad. She fills my life with warmth and makes it glow. When she’s here, every day is Christmas… ‘Love’ is what life is all about. Only during the Holidays do we seem to realize that. And, ironically, it has been Marsha—someone I’ve never had anything to do with sexually—who has helped show me what love is all about. Happy New Year! See you next year… maybe.”

See these papers below & much more soon in the Randy Wicker & Marsha P. Johnson Papers at the NYC LGBT Community Center National History Archive. Jesse’s sculpture will also soon be on display at the Center.

This archiving project has been made possible by Randy Wicker & by supporters at Patreon.com/QueerSerial.

xo
Devlyn Camp

P.S. See many more photos of Marsha from Randy’s personal collection here.