Nov 26, 2008 8:15 am US/Pacific
Feinstein Recalls Assassination Of Milk, Moscone
SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) ―
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San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk was assassinated by fellow supervisor Dan White, who also shot and killed Mayor George Moscone on Nov. 27, 1978.
AP
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein reflected Tuesday on the assassination of San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, nearly 30 years after she found his body lying on an office floor in San Francisco City Hall.
"I remember it as if it was yesterday,'' Feinstein said.
She said she struggled for years to speak about the tragedy, which she refers to as one of the hardest moments of her life.
Speaking to members of the media at her San Francisco office, Feinstein said of Milk, "He was a character in many respects. He could be very funny. He could be very intense. He could be very loud.''
Milk and former Mayor George Moscone were fatally shot by former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White at City Hall on Nov. 27, 1978.
Feinstein, who was president of the Board of Supervisors at the time, recalled hearing the shots, leaving her office and finding Milk's body before learning that Moscone had also been killed.
Feinstein said Tuesday that White did not kill Milk because of his sexual orientation, but rather because he felt betrayed when he was not able to reclaim his seat on the board after resigning.
"What people don't know is that Dan White and Harvey Milk were friends,'' Feinstein said, adding they used to meet for coffee in the Castro nearly every week.
"Dan White was a troubled man under a lot of pressure,'' Feinstein said.
Because of her position as president of the board, Feinstein became mayor after Moscone's death. She was then elected to the post twice.
At Tuesday's event, she called the two years after the assassinations the most difficult political years of her life.
"What it did to the city was divide it right down the middle,'' Feinstein said.
Also on Tuesday, House speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Bay Area leaders and representatives joined youth at the Treasure Island Job Corps Center to celebrate the life of Harvey Milk and unveil a bust of the former San Francisco supervisor.
In addition to Pelosi, speakers included U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and Milk's nephew Stuart Milk, all of whom spoke about Milk's commitment to social justice and the community.
"He came to everything,'' Pelosi said Tuesday afternoon, reflecting on when she was a volunteer for the Democratic Party more than 30 years ago. "All of it was important to him.''
Pelosi said the Treasure Island Job Corps Center was an appropriate setting for Tuesday's ceremony because of Milk's commitment to youth.
The center offers job training and education to 600 youth between the age of 16 and 24.
In addition to unveiling the bust at the event, officials announced a building on the center's campus has been renamed the Harvey Milk Memorial Administration Building. The bronze bust, a replica of one placed at City Hall earlier this year, will be put in the building's foyer.
Stuart Milk said, "The youth are really the hope and Harvey saw that and realized that early on.''
Take a look back at the Milk assassination with a collection of news reports from the days following the shootings in our Classic KPIX video section.
See interviews with the stars of a new film chronicling the life of Harvey Milk.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
Classic KPIX Video: The Moscone, Milk Assassinations
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