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a poster in orange and purple tones with a circular mandala design and a group of people marching
Gay Liberation Front poster
a painting depicting a battle scene with Native American fighters and horses of several different colors
Muslin painting by an unknown Lakota artist
A black poster with a pink triangle and in bold white text it reads Silence = Death
© ACT-UP
Silence = Death Project
“Silence = Death” poster

1987
ACT UP New York Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division

“Silence = Death” poster

A consciousness-raising group of gay men affected by the AIDS crisis began meeting in New York City in 1986, among them Avram Finkelstein, Chris Lione, Jorge Socarrás, Oliver Johnston, Charles Kreloff, and Brian Howard. Their discussions led them to create a poster to spur the LGBTQ community into action. To protest the U.S. government’s silence about AIDS, the design featured the pink triangle that homosexuals were assigned to wear in the Holocaust. This poster became the key symbol of the AIDS activist organization ACT UP, which emerged the following year.

: ACT UP New York Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division

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Items in Fortitude

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  • Detail of manuscript of James Baldwin's “Open Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Davis, in care of the Silent Majority”

    Fortitude Introduction

  • a poster in orange and purple tones with a circular mandala design and a group of people marching

    Gay Liberation Front poster

    Not currently on view

  • A black poster with a pink triangle and in bold white text it reads Silence = Death

    “Silence = Death” poster

    Not currently on view

  • a painting depicting a battle scene with Native American fighters and horses of several different colors

    Muslin painting by an unknown Lakota artist

    Not currently on view

  • A broadsheet from the Pennsylvania Gazette newspaper that features a drawn image of a snake cut into pieces and the words Join or Die

    “Join or Die. Symbol of the Colonies”

    Not currently on view

  • Sheet music of “The Star Spangled Banner,” starting with "O say can you see by the dawn's early light"

    First edition of “The Star Spangled Banner”

    Not currently on view

  • Printed document with large header reading “$200 Reward” and a handwritten note at the bottom signed by the submitter, Thomas C. Scott

    Reward broadside for the capture of a slave

    Not currently on view

  • Detail of manuscript of James Baldwin's “Open Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Davis, in care of the Silent Majority”

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