An Archive of Hope: Harvey Milk’s Speeches and Writings ed. by Jason Edward Black and Charles E. Morris III (review)

I am a teenager. I know that is true. The memory that escapes me in the reflection of my youth, however, is whether or not I was out. I am gay, but was I gay then? Did my language lead me to that identification at that time? I am a teenager and I am watching The Life and Times of Harvey Milk. I know, in the watching, that something in me shatters. I am not alone. This man Harvey Milk is important. He makes a difference. He matters to me. He is special to me. I now know about the opera, The Mayor of Castro Street, and the New York public high school named in his honor. I notice Harvey’s stamp my mother uses on mail sent to her friends, our family, the bank, her gay son. I know Harvey. I see him in Gus Van Sant’s and Dustin Lance Black’s Milk. I know Harvey Milk. At least I thought I did.

An Archive of Hope is a remarkable contribution to GLBTQ history and the ways in which that history might shape our presents and futures. Black and Morris have compiled 45 of Harvey’s public texts in a single volume. A fore-word by Frank M. Robinson, Harvey’s friend and speechwriter, opens the collection. In their nuanced and thoughtfully researched introduction, Black and Morris make several convincing arguments. First, though there are many texts of Harvey’s circulating in various places, their archive is unique in that it focuses on Harvey’s public self. What the editors provide, then, is a series of Harvey’s speeches, forums, letters to editors, and other documents that were composed for audiences with whom Harvey lived and worked. Second, Harvey is a reminder of queer world makers working in local contexts. Third, Harvey was animated by and deeply connected to populist and progressive politics for all San Franciscans who shared his vision and for gay people specifically. Harvey was a coalition builder while also advocating freedom for gay people. Finally, Black and Morris suggest that “GLBTQ history and memory are fragile, rarely taught, and subject to trivialization even by those within GLBTQ communities” (40). An Archive of Hope might function as a moment whereby those who explore its pages can remember the past—not for a nostalgic longing but to help refigure queer potentialities now and for tomorrow.

The book is organized into five parts representing different aspects of Harvey’s political life. Before each text, there are editorial notes to help situate the primary material. In many ways, these editorial comments are helpful, but as the pace and energy of Harvey’s life and compositions took over, I found myself becoming slightly frustrated at the interruptions and repetition. However, those less familiar with Harvey and the context in which he lived would learn much from these notes.

In part 1, we come to know Harvey as a populist. The opening text is an interview with Harvey in Kalendar magazine, and Harvey’s first words are: “I’m forty-three . . . and I can do one of two things. I can concentrate on a lot of money while I enjoy perhaps another ten years of active gay life. . . . Or I can get involved and do something about all the things I think are wrong in our society” (64). Milk as an instigator, charmer, and threat comes into clear focus in this section. Through Milk’s own words, we see the key issues that will come to dominate his political life and the elements important to his populist rhetoric: an end to police harassment of gays, resources for the elderly, responsibility and accountability of public servants, gay representation for gays and lesbians, and a deep criticism for those whom Milk would call “Aunt Marys”—the gay equivalent of an...