Pictured Wanda Alston with Mayor Anthony Williams in background. Photo credit D.C. government. #2 Carlene Cheatam at the service. #3 Stacey Long & Wanda Alston's mother at the service last weekend. Photos by Bob Roehr
The mayor's liaison to the GLBT community in Washington, D.C., was stabbed to death inside her home on the afternoon of March 16. Wanda R. Alston, 45, played a prominent role in both local and national affairs as a Black lesbian activist who was able to communicate across many communities.
The murder also rocked Chicago, where Alston visited last summer with her partner Stacey Long, former head of the Howard Brown Health Center's Women's Program. The two were in town for a benefit for the Affinity group, which supports African American lesbians, and Long has many friends here.
The day after the murder, police arrested and charged William Parrot Jr., 38, with the crime. Parrot was an unemployed neighbor who has claimed he was high on crack at the time and had sought money to support his habit. Alston resisted and her body carried numerous knife wounds as evidence of that fact.
The rapid resolution of the case and its apparent motives did not allow for fears and rumors to take hold within the community. It kept the focus of discussion on a life of achievement that ended much too soon.
Wanda Alston was born and raised in Newport News, Va., where segregation was slow to depart and life in her large working-class family was hard. She joined the Air Force soon after high school, using the military as a pathway to education and a better life.
She moved to Washington, D.C., in 1985. Cocaine use turned into addiction, which she shook in 1990. That experience left her with an abiding personal commitment to issues of substance abuse.
Recovery also signaled the emergence of Alston as a political activist. In four years at the National Organization for Women ( NOW ) , first as personal assistant to executive director Patricia Ireland and then with increasing responsibilities, she played a key role in organizing five national marches and joined the U.S. delegation to the World Conference on Women in Beijing, China in 1995.
She worked for the Human Rights Campaign before joining the administration of Washington, D.C., Mayor Anthony Williams in 1999. She served in various positions within the city government before being appointed to head up the Office on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs in 2001. That position was elevated to cabinet level status last fall.
Alston was a delegate to the 2004 Democratic National Convention and took a leave of absence from her city job to work on John Kerry's presidential campaign.
She met Stacey Long, 37, last year and proposed a few months later. The pair were planning a wedding ceremony for June.
Alston's staff became concerned when they could not contact her. They notified Long, who discovered Alston's body lying in a pool of blood inside their residence. Funeral services were March 21 in Washington, D.C., with burial in Newport News, Va.
Long is a former Chicagoan who headed the Howard Brown Health Center Women's Program. Many Chicago lesbians were shocked by the news of the murder, and several travelled to D.C. to attend last weekend's memorial.
Wanda ... In Her Own Words: an interview with the Rainbow History Project in February 2001
Identity
People always ask the question, 'Are you Black first, or are you a woman first.' I have to be honest with you, in my household no one talked about the color of my skin but they certainly reminded me that I was a girl. So when it comes to my sexuality, it is less important to my race and my sex, because it is less visible … my sexuality is important to me and if I want to make it important to others, it's through education and sharing my story.
… I can't stop fighting racism, because no matter how old I get I'm still going to be Black. I can't stop fighting [ sexism ] because no matter how old I get I'm still going to be a woman. I can't stop fighting some of the other isms I see because I can't change those things. I'm going to change the culture and begin to work with people who want to change the culture.
World Conference on Women, in China ( 1995 )
I went there to talk about lesbianism and the fact that lesbian rights was not part of the platform and that it would not be part of the platform of action … I was appalled … . What we first saw was that lesbianism was such a needed topic.
Human Rights Campaign
By the time I got to HRC I saw the gay movement from a national perspective but I saw what it really was. It was a microcosm of wealthy gay white men, white women, who were also racist.
… One thing that I like about HRC is that they know how to do marketing … I have to give them credit for being the best marketers out there in marketing the gay and lesbian message. That's what attracted me to them. I wanted to learn how to raise money the way they did. I wanted to learn everything I could from them.
See www.rainbowhistory.org/Alston.htm