Clark, who complained of death threats on himself and his family by “Negro extremist groups.” Roy Reed’s special report of Bloody Sunday at Selma would ignite sympathy for Black Freedom causes and help speed political passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. would join the next two Selma to Montgomery marches alongside the young activist John Lewis. Reed’s journalistic contribution to queer history, conversely, remains unknown to most Americans. It’s so unjustly obscure that even Reed’s very worthy New York Times obituary failed to mention it. In the late hours of Sunday, June 24, 1973, Roy Reed was jolted alert by a phone call from the Times Annex in New York City to his home on Upperline Street in Uptown New Orleans, two blocks off St.
His night editor on the national desk informed him of a deadly fire downtown, with multiple dead. Reed raced in his car towards a smoldering, second-story bar perched on the edge of the French Quarter.
