Broadside Protesting the Lynching of Timothy Lee and Suspected Police Cover Up, Community Rally for Justice in the Murder of A Gay Black Man in the Bay Area, Concord CA 1986

Sexist Coalition Against Racist Anti-Gay Attacks

Broadside

[Social Activism] Broadside protesting the murder of 23 year old art student Timothy Lee in California in 1985. Timothy Lee was found hanging from a tree in Concord, California on November 2, 1985, shortly after two Black men, Tony Hall and Jeff Miller, were stabbed nearby by men in KKK robes. Lee's death was quickly ruled a suicide, but a police cover up was widely suspected. This broadside calls for a community meeting and February 22, 1986 demonstration at the Concord Police Station against racist and anti-gay violence in Contra Costa County and the Bay Area. The text identifies Lee as a 23-year-old Black gay man, gives the protest site as 1900 Parkside Drive in Concord, and announces a February 12, 1986 community meeting at New College of Law, 50 Fell Street, San Francisco. Its central demands are stated: “Expose the police cover-up, protest the lynching of Tim Lee!,” “Stop the Klan and all racist terror!,” and “Protest the Klan stabbing of Tony Hall and Jeff Miller!”

“Demonstrate Against Racist Violence!” / “Community Meeting: Protest Racist, Sexist, Anti-Gay Attacks!” Coalition Against Racist, Sexist, Anti-Gay Attacks. Concord and San Francisco: Coalition Against Racist, Sexist, Anti-Gay Attacks, 1986. Broadside. 8.5 x 14 inches. The upper section announces the Concord Police Station protest for Saturday, February 22, 1:00 p.m., with a boxed notice for a Wednesday, February 12, 1986 meeting at 7:30 p.m. at New College of Law. The lower section carries a portrait captioned “TIMOTHY LEE, 23” and a detailed explanatory text stating that Lee “was found dead, hung from a tree near the Concord BART station” on November 2, 1985, that Concord police closed the investigation as suicide, that the purported “suicide note” misspelled his name and the names of family members, and that the coroner’s office destroyed evidence after it was determined that the strap used in the lynching did not belong to Lee. The text further states that the Coalition Against Racist, Sexist, Anti-Gay Attacks had already held two demonstrations, that the NAACP called a press conference on January 3, 1986 for an FBI investigation, and that the FBI announced on January 7 that it had opened an investigation.
This broadside captures the community anti-racist and queer activist response to Timothy Lee’s death, the Hall and Miller stabbings, and accusations of police suppression of evidence. Its closing call for an investigation “controlled by workers, blacks, other people of color, and lesbians and gays,” together with its warning about “Klan and Nazi organizing and attacks” in Contra Costa County, bring together a intersectional response to white supremacist violence and official handling of Lee’s death. Center crease; small pencil notation reading “1986”; complete and otherwise clean. Overall very good condition. A Bay Area protest broadside advocating for community mobilizing in protect of the murder of Timothy Lee, anti-gay violence, anti-Black violence in early 1986.

Item #23342

Price: $350.00