AIDS in the '80s: The rise of a new civil rights movement

By Jen Christensen, CNN

Updated 2137 GMT (0537 HKT) June 1, 2016

A special collection at the <a href="http://rose.library.emory.edu/collections/modern-politics/lgbt.html" target="_blank">Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University library</a> in Atlanta collected papers and artifacts from the height of the AIDS epidemic. This T-shirt celebrates the city's gay pride parade. It took courage to march in Atlanta's gay pride parades in the 1980s. There were no civil rights protections, but still, attendance tripled, and the community became more visible as it came together to fight stigma and fear that came with the AIDS epidemic.<a href="http://atlantapride.org/about/history/" target="_blank"> In 1982</a>, the city issued the first official proclamation to honor the festival, but Mayor Andrew Young, already a civil rights icon, would not sign it, according to Atlanta Pride. Two years later, Young showed his support for the community with a proclamation of "Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Day."
Photos: Mementos of an epidemic
A special collection at the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University library in Atlanta collected papers and artifacts from the height of the AIDS epidemic. This T-shirt celebrates the city's gay pride parade. It took courage to march in Atlanta's gay pride parades in the 1980s. There were no civil rights protections, but still, attendance tripled, and the community became more visible as it came together to fight stigma and fear that came with the AIDS epidemic. In 1982, the city issued the first official proclamation to honor the festival, but Mayor Andrew Young, already a civil rights icon, would not sign it, according to Atlanta Pride. Two years later, Young showed his support for the community with a proclamation of "Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Day."
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"The American Music Show" was a quirky, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKvMp1kCpV4" target="_blank">low-budget public access TV program</a> that ran in Atlanta from 1981 to 2005. The weekly show featured interviews and music from the city's underground arts scene. In the wake of the AIDS epidemic that decimated the gay community, campy shows like this were critical to maintaining some fun. <a href="http://findingaids.library.emory.edu/documents/americanmusicshow1256/" target="_blank">The show </a>might be most famous for launching the career of drag/punk performer <a href="http://clatl.com/atlanta/rupaul-starrbootys-revenge/Content?oid=1270111" target="_blank">RuPaul</a>, now the host of "RuPaul's Drag Race." It's "where I really got my start," he told Atlanta's Creative Loafing. "It was college for me."
Photos: Mementos of an epidemic
"The American Music Show" was a quirky, low-budget public access TV program that ran in Atlanta from 1981 to 2005. The weekly show featured interviews and music from the city's underground arts scene. In the wake of the AIDS epidemic that decimated the gay community, campy shows like this were critical to maintaining some fun. The show might be most famous for launching the career of drag/punk performer RuPaul, now the host of "RuPaul's Drag Race." It's "where I really got my start," he told Atlanta's Creative Loafing. "It was college for me."
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<a href="http://news.emory.edu/stories/2012/10/er_aids_activist_jesse_peel_donation/campus.html" target="_blank">Dr. Jesse R. Peel</a>, a retired psychiatrist and long-time AIDS activist in Atlanta, kept his appointment books as a memento of the era. In the 1980s, though, his books took on an additional purpose: chronicling the names of friends he lost to AIDS. There are pages and pages. After so many losses into the 1990s, Peel said, he eventually gave up counting.
Photos: Mementos of an epidemic
Dr. Jesse R. Peel, a retired psychiatrist and long-time AIDS activist in Atlanta, kept his appointment books as a memento of the era. In the 1980s, though, his books took on an additional purpose: chronicling the names of friends he lost to AIDS. There are pages and pages. After so many losses into the 1990s, Peel said, he eventually gave up counting.
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What started out as Peel's joyful travel journal soon took on another purpose as the AIDS epidemic raged around him. Essentially, he took the advice he gave patients dealing with a crisis: Peel wrote to try to make sense of what was happening and to cope with the loss of so many previously healthy young friends. Peel's five volumes give an uncensored glimpse into loss and love, and show how the scope and scale of the disease affected one person deeply.
Photos: Mementos of an epidemic
What started out as Peel's joyful travel journal soon took on another purpose as the AIDS epidemic raged around him. Essentially, he took the advice he gave patients dealing with a crisis: Peel wrote to try to make sense of what was happening and to cope with the loss of so many previously healthy young friends. Peel's five volumes give an uncensored glimpse into loss and love, and show how the scope and scale of the disease affected one person deeply.
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Through the epidemic, Peel became an activist helping to help lead <a href="https://www.aidatlanta.org/page.aspx?pid=288" target="_blank">AID Atlanta</a> and <a href="http://www.positiveimpacthealthcenters.org/" target="_blank">Positive Impact</a>, a mental health program for people with HIV and their friends. <a href="http://news.emory.edu/stories/2012/10/er_aids_activist_jesse_peel_donation/campus.html" target="_blank">Peel said</a> he liked to throw parties, so he turned them into purposeful fundraisers that helped raise awareness and launch the nonprofits, which still operate today. In the speech shown here, Peel talked about his role as a doctor and described what it was like to reunite a witty young man dying from AIDS with his family. He felt he helped make a positive difference in "how one person leaves this life." Peel, who has now lived with HIV for decades, continues his work in Atlanta as an activist.
Photos: Mementos of an epidemic
Through the epidemic, Peel became an activist helping to help lead AID Atlanta and Positive Impact, a mental health program for people with HIV and their friends. Peel said he liked to throw parties, so he turned them into purposeful fundraisers that helped raise awareness and launch the nonprofits, which still operate today. In the speech shown here, Peel talked about his role as a doctor and described what it was like to reunite a witty young man dying from AIDS with his family. He felt he helped make a positive difference in "how one person leaves this life." Peel, who has now lived with HIV for decades, continues his work in Atlanta as an activist.
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