Marsha P. Johnson State Park

Marsha P. Johnson State Park is a seven-acre waterfront park along the East River in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, named for Marsha P. Johnson, a transgender woman of color who was a central figure in the Stonewall uprising of 1969 and a tireless advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and homeless youth throughout her life.

Johnson was among the first to resist the police raid at the Stonewall Inn on June 28, 1969, and she co-founded STAR (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) with Sylvia Rivera, an organization that provided housing and support for homeless transgender youth. Her activism spanned decades and she continued advocating for marginalized communities until her death in 1992.

The park, formerly known as East River State Park, was renamed in 2020 in recognition of Johnson's contributions to the civil rights movement. It is managed by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, making it one of the few state parks within the city limits.

The park features an expansive waterfront lawn with unobstructed views of the Manhattan skyline and the Williamsburg Bridge, a popular gathering space for picnics, sunbathing, and community events. The park hosts a popular Saturday food market called Smorgasburg during the warmer months, drawing thousands of visitors.

Marsha P. Johnson State Park honors a revolutionary figure whose courage at Stonewall helped launch the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement. The park's naming ensures that Johnson's legacy, long marginalized in mainstream accounts of Stonewall, is permanently inscribed in the landscape of the city she fought to change.