Legendary activist Dominique Morgan is believed to be the first out Black trans woman to have a street named after her, an honor that was bestowed on her earlier this week. Morgan is also the first formerly incarcerated person to receive that honor in Nebraska history, according to Gaye Magazine.
Morgan is currently the director of the Fund for Trans Generations at the social justice philanthropy organization, Borealis Philanthropy. She’s a longtime organizer for the abolition of the prison industrial complex, having served as the executive director of queer abolitionist organization Black and Pink from 2018 to 2022. At the end of July, the Omaha City Council unanimously voted to rename a street in Morgan’s honor, on Taylor St. between 25th St. and 25th Ave. It’s a street that has deep personal significance to Morgan, a longtime resident of Omaha, as she explained at a naming ceremony held by the reproductive justice organization I Be Black Girl on Monday.
“There is something incredibly moving about the idea that young Black folks will walk down a street in a historically Black neighborhood named after a Black trans woman, who at the age of 12 was placed into the back of a police car for the first time on the exact street,” Morgan said in comments reported by GLAAD. “And at 16, she found herself navigating homelessness. And by 18, incarceration.”
She was arrested for so-called “survival crimes” at 18, explaining to local outlet KETV that she would steal cars and sleep in them when she was homeless. Morgan was incarcerated for 10 years, including 18 months in solitary confinement, and got out in 2009, having earned an associate’s degree in culinary management while incarcerated. She’s since earned a Master’s degree from Georgetown University, and is one of the few Black trans women to run a multi-million dollar philanthropic fund, according to GLAAD.
In a press release, Morgan added that her maternal grandmother owned a home on that street, where she realized her “queerness and trans identity as a child.”
She went on to say that the street naming ceremony “is a declaration to the world that the existence of trans people is non-negotiable.” “And for every queer and trans person who walks down Dominique Morgan Street, they will know that no matter where their story began, they will get to determine where their story ends,” Morgan said, per GLAAD.
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