The preface to the Cleve Jones autobiography When We Rise: My Life in the Movement (Hachette Books, 2016) begins, “The movement saved my life.” He, in turn, has saved countless lives through his HIV/AIDS and LGBTQ+ activism, his work at the major labor union UNITE HERE, and his personal efforts that continue to have such a meaningful impact on many individuals, especially here in the San Francisco Bay Area.
On October 11, 2024, Jones will turn 70, a milestone that as a longtime HIV/AIDS survivor he never thought he would reach. To mark that occasion, this issue of the San Francisco Bay Times shares stories from just some of those who have known and/or worked with Jones, and looks back at his achievements over the decades.
1960s: Jones in When We Rise shares, “I signed up in ‘68 (for the movement), when I was 14 years old. Like other young people across the United States, I wanted to do my part to end the war in Vietnam. My family had just moved from Pennsylvania to Arizona and when Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers came to organize the grape pickers, my friends and I knew right away that it was part of the bigger picture and signed up for picket duty and walked in the marches.”
1970s: Jones moved to San Francisco and, while studying political science at San Francisco State University, worked as a student intern in Harvey Milk’s office. Jones became more involved in LGBTQ+ activism, and was a founding contributor of the San Francisco Bay Times.
1980s: The San Francisco AIDS Foundation was cofounded by Jones, initially as the Kaposi’s Sarcoma Research and Education Foundation. In 1985, he announced on the television program 60 Minutes that he was HIV positive; this was at a time when treatments were very limited. Jones conceived the AIDS Memorial Quilt at a candlelight memorial for Milk. It has since become the world’s largest community arts project.
1990s: Even while Jones suffered from the effects of HIV/AIDS, coming close to death before the development of antiretroviral therapy, he remained a staunch activist and ran for a position on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He helped make possible the display of the then entire AIDS Memorial Quilt on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., giving national and international attention to the disease and its toll.
2000s: Jones began to work for UNITE HERE as a lecturer, organizer, and author. The union represents more than 250,000 workers throughout the U.S. and Canada who work in the hospitality, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, laundry, and airport industries.
2010s: He wrote When We Rise, which was made into a television series of the same name broadcast in February and March of 2017 on ABC.
2024: To mark his 70th birthday, Jones established the Cleve Jones Community Fund, hosted by the Horizons Foundation. This is, of course, just a small number of his many achievements over the past several decades. We encourage you to read, or reread, his autobiography, and to attend his 70th birthday party on October 11, appropriately at 1 Jones Street in San Francisco. The party, with Gilead Sciences as the presenting sponsor, will benefit the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the National AIDS Memorial (AIDS Memorial Quilt).
Honoring Cleve Jones at 70
Published on October 3, 2024
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