Harvey Milk I Am All Of Us

Photograph of a man's head in brown and light brown in the center of the button with brown text around the outer edges on a light brown background

Harvey Milk was an iconic lesbian and gay rights activist, and the first openly gay elected government official in California. He was known for his dedication to the advancement of lesbian and gay rights and his theatrical campaign strategies. He was famous in rallying support from the gay community using his soap-box and bullhorn. During his campaign for the mayoral election, he would march with thousands of people through the city of San Francisco, chanting his slogan “My name is Harvey Milk and I’m here to recruit you." Milk was assassinated  in 1978 by Dan White, a resigned city supervisor trying to get his job back. 

The quote on the button "I Am All Of Us" was from a poem he had written during the height of his fight against the Briggs initiative, which, sponsored by John Briggs, would have banned gays and anyone supporting gay rights to work in California's public schools. The poem reads:

I can be killed with ease/I can be cut right down/But I can not fall back to my closet/I have grown/I am not by myself/I am too many/I am all of us