Black trans women in particular have been an important part of the gay

rights movement since the Stonewall uprising in 1969 in New York City.

I was having a party uptown and I didn't get downtown until about two o'clock and we were all out there.

Marsha P. Johnson was one of those women.

And Miss Sylvia and Rivera were over in the park having a cocktail because when I got down

the place was already on fire and it was a raid already.

The riots had already started and they said the police went in there and set the place on fire.

This is from a 1989 interview with journalists Eric Marquez.

We just was saying no more police brutality and we had enough of police harassment and the village and other places.

Oh there was a lot of little chance we used to do in those days.

By the time Marsha died in 1992 people rarely talked about her role in the movement.

With the fight for protection and inclusion back then is so similar to the fight we are saying today.

Black trans women continued to face disproportionate levels of violence.

Within the past week 22 year old Mercy Mac was killed in Dallas and Braila Stone was found dead in Arkansas.

Police are treating her death as a homicide.

Braila was just 17.

There's this idea that because we are having an openly different gender experience that we deserve the abuse that we may receive.

And that's just not okay.

I'm Tremaine Lee and this is Into America.

Today a look at how racism and transphobia have pushed black trans women to the fringe of the gay rights movement and the movement for black lives.

And what's being done to change that?

I got a chance to talk with Raquel Willis, a black transgender activist and the director of communications for the Mids Foundation, a non-profit fighting for women's rights.

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