MARLON RIGGS, poet, journalist and filmmaker was born. Riggs was inducted into the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association Hall of Fame in 2006. He produced many documentaries for public television, some of which were controversial like Tongues Untied, being protested by media watchdog groups because they were produced with money from the National Endowment for the Arts. One of his notable students was San Francisco-based documentary filmmaker Sam Green. Marlon Riggs died from HIV/AIDS related illness in 1994.

His death came prior to completion of his final work, Black Is…Black Ain’t, a film about sexism and homophobia in African-American communities. It is a poorer world without his voice and vision.