Lige Clarke

An early luminary of the gay movement, Elijah Hadyn Clarke was raised in Hindman, attended Eastern Kentucky University, and upon graduating, joined the Army. In April 1965, while working in the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon, Lige helped organize the first openly gay picket in front of the White House—four years before the Stonewall Riots. He and his partner Jack Nichols went on to become prominent activists and pioneering gay journalists. They moved from D.C. to New York City in 1968. In 1970, they co-founded GAY, the first weekly newspaper in the U.S. to cover politics and culture from a gay perspective. It became the most profitable gay newspaper in the country. Tragically, Lige was murdered just before his 33rd birthday while on a trip to Mexico in February 1975.