Kight, Morris, 1919-2003

Born in Texas, Kight was an early advocate of integration; involved with Southern Christian Leadership Conference; graduated, US Career Service Training School, 1942; arrived in LA, 1957, beginning career as "underground gay liberationist"; in 1967 member of Dow Action Committee, opposing defoliants; spokesperson in the Gay Liberation Front of Los Angeles; helped found Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade Committee; co-founder Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center; member of California State Democratic Central Committee; later member of Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission and advocate for seniors; recipient, ACLU Eason Monroe Award, 1982.

Biographical Note

Morris Kight the youngest of three children was born in Procter, Comanche County, Texas, on November 19, 1919. His father died when he was 7 years old. His siblings, John Lewis and Mildred, soon left home leaving Kight and his mother to fend for themselves. After graduating from high school in June 1936, he continued onto Texas Christian University. In 1942, he graduated from Texas Christian University. In New Mexico, he married and fathered two daughters. The marriage lasted five years, ending in 1955. Kight relocated to Los Angeles in 1958 where his earliest involvement in the LGBT community can be traced to a donation to ONE, Incorporated, in 1964 and a book review for Tangents Magazine in 1968. According to his many interviews, during this time he continued his work on behalf of minorities, the environment, and for other progressive causes. He became known for the founding of the Dow Action Committee (DAC) in 1967. DAC protested the use of napalm and defoliants in Vietnam and appealed to Dow Chemical to end their production. In the same year he met a "companion," Larry Allen. They were together until Allen’s death in 1972.

In December 1969, Kight collaborated with others to found the Los Angeles chapter of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). Gay political activism had caught up with the direct-action approach Kight had appreciated in other progressive non-violent organizations. The target of the first GLF protest was Barneys Beanery’s "Fagots [sic] Stay Out!" signs.

Don Jackson, a GLF member, proposed the surreptitious take-over of the sparsely populated Alpine County by gays and lesbians. His plan was to have hundreds of gays and lesbians relocate to and register to vote in Alpine County over a period time. While Jackson believed in the feasibility of the plan, Don Kilhefner and Kight realized the publicity potential of the mission. Kilhefner and Kight organized and held press conferences on the plan to re-locate hundreds of gays and lesbians to a new "gay Mecca." The announcements received national media attention, and the Alpine County Board of Supervisors was soon requesting advice from officials in then Governor Reagan’s office of legal affairs. Less than a year after the original proposal was made public the GLF abandon the mission.

Kight continued to prove his abilities to organize and promote LGBT causes. He went on to contribute to the founding of Christopher Street West (1970), the sponsor of the Los Angeles Pride parades; L.A. Gay Community Services Center (1971), currently known as the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center; Van Ness Recovery House (1973), a center for substance abuse recovery; National New Orleans Memorial Fund (1973), to aid the survivors of the Upstairs Lounge fire; First Tuesday (1975), a collaborative space for LGBT organizations; Stonewall Democratic Club (1975); Gay and Lesbian Caucus/ California Democratic Party (1977); Orange County Against the Briggs Initiative (1978); Moscone - Milk Memorial Committee (1978); Asian / Pacific Lesbians and Gays (1980); Aid for AIDS (1982); Gay and Lesbian Olympics Visitors Hospitality Committee (1983); and Old / Older / Senior / Elder Lesbian / Gay Advocates (1992). Kight also promoted LGBT causes such as the boycott of CBS, Coors Beer, and the motion picture Cruising . He also sought recognition of LGBT rights as human rights, the formation of a Los Angeles police review board, and the reform of United States immigration laws. He served on a number of tasks forces and commissions including the Governor's Task Force on Civil Rights, Lieutenant Governor's Commission for ONE California, and the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations. Along with all of this he campaigned for a long list of social justice issue, and yet he would still be available to plead for such causes as the continued funding of Gay Student Union by the UCLA student council.

Beyond his time and experience, Kight contributed his art collection to the community. This tangible legacy grew from his love of art and his own showcase, his residence on McCadden Place. As his collection became more prominent, an increasing number of quality works were donated to the collection. While the collection was located at McCadden Place, it was curated by David T. Spencer (David Schwinkendorf), Kight and his partner, Roy Zukeran. After Spencer's death and because of Kight's failing health, Miguel Angel Reyes and Ron Anderegg became the collection's curators. The collection was exhibited at a variety of events from 1985-1995 and later went into storage, before its donation to ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives.

Kight died on January 19, 2003, survived by Roy Zukeran, his "companion" of twenty-five years.

Ciotti, Paul. "Morris Kight: Activist Statesman of L.A.'s Gay Community: [Home Edition]." Los Angeles Times (pre-1997 Fulltext), December 09, 1988, http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed April 1, 2011).

Clendinen, Dudley, and Adam Nagourney. Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America . New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.

Nardi, Peter M., David Sanders, and Judd Marmor. "Interview with Morris Kight." Growing Up Before Stonewall: Life Stories of Some Gay Men . London and New York: Routledge, 1994. 15-34.

Wat, Eric C. The Making of a Gay Asian Community: An Oral History of Pre-AIDS Los Angeles . Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2002. 109-110, 112-113.

Biography

Born in Texas, Kight was an early advocate of integration; involved with Southern Christian Leadership Conference; graduated, U.S. Career Service Training School, 1942; arrived in Los Angeles, 1957, beginning career as underground gay liberationist; in 1967 member of Dow Action Committee, opposing defoliants; spokesperson in the Gay Liberation Front of Los Angeles; helped found Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade Committee; co-founder Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center; member of California State Democratic Central Committee; later member of Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission and advocate for seniors; recipient, ACLU Eason Monroe Award, 1982.