Cleve Jones

Veteran civil rights activist and founder of the AIDS Memorial Quilt

Cleve Jones, founder of The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, began his career as an activist in San Francisco during the turbulent 1970s, when he was befriended by pioneer gay rights leader Harvey Milk.

Jones worked as a student intern in Milk’s office until the famed gay rights activist and leader was assassinated in 1978. The story of Harvey Milk was recently brought to life by famed director Gus Van Sant and Jones worked as the historical consultant for the film. The film, winner of two Academy Awards, featured Sean Penn as Milk and Emile Hirsch, star of Sean Penn's acclaimed film "Into the Wild," as Cleve Jones.

After Milk’s assassination, Cleve began working as a legislative consultant and was then elected to three terms on the San Francisco Democratic County Central Committee, also serving on local and state commissions for juvenile justice and delinquency prevention and the Mission Mental Health Community Advisory Board. One of the first to recognize the threat of AIDS, Cleve co-founded the San Francisco AIDS Foundation in 1983.

In 1985, at a candlelight memorial for Harvey Milk, Jones conceived the idea of the AIDS Memorial Quilt. Since then, the AIDS Memorial Quilt has grown to become the world's largest community arts project, memorializing the lives of over 85,000 Americans killed by AIDS.

Jones continued to organize and speak out on behalf of people living with HIV/AIDS even as he himself developed AIDS in the 1990’s. In 1994, Jones was one of the first people in the world to start HIV combination therapy and is one of the longest surviving people living with AIDS.

A dynamic and inspiring public speaker, Jones travels extensively throughout the United States and around the world, lecturing at high schools, colleges and universities. He has met with heads of state, including Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton and former South African President Nelson Mandela. In 1989, Cleve was awarded Honorary Doctorates from Haverford College and the Starr King School for the Ministry. He has also received numerous awards from AIDS and gay rights organizations, religious conferences, state and national health associations and the legislatures of California, Indiana and Massachusetts.

Jones has served as a member of the International Advisory Board of the Harvard AIDS Institute, the National Board of Governors of Project Inform and the Board of Directors of the Foundation for AIDS and Immune Research. His best-selling memoir, "Stitching a Revolution", was published by HarperCollins and his work has been featured in the Academy Award-winning documentary, "Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt" and on 60 Minutes, Nightline, Charlie Rose, Good Morning America, Oprah, National Public Radio, Frontline and many other television and radio programs.

In this decade, Cleve continues his political activism as an organizer for UNITE HERE, the international union representing textile, hotel, casino and restaurant workers, fighting for access to health care, safe working conditions and human rights.

The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt,

created by Cleve Jones