Today, at 6pm, on what would have been Harvey Milk's 78th birthday, a bust (model pictured, below) in his honor will be unveiled at City Hall by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. The bust will occupy a permanent place atop the staircase in the City Hall rotunda.
The decision to place the bust atop the staircase capped weeks of haggling, according to the Bay Area Reporter: “‘This bust has been traveling around City Hall like you wouldn't believe,' quipped Joey Cain, co-chair of the Harvey Milk City Hall Memorial Committee. Cain said the committee wanted the bust to be in the rotunda. During Milk's time in office, noted Cain, Milk never rode the elevator to the second floor. Instead, he walked up the grand staircase every time. ‘Harvey has a quote – I don't know the exact wording of – in which he said when gay people walk into City Hall, they should walk right up those stairs to let people know they are here,' said Cain. ‘Putting it outside the entrance to the Board of Supervisors' chamber in this rotunda has great symbolic significance.”
Watch the NBC News footage broadcast on the evening of Milk and Mayor George Moscone's assassination, which includes Dianne Feinstein's still shocking announcement of their untimely deaths, AFTER THE JUMP…
