11 Celebrities and Activists Leading The Fight Against AIDS In The Black Community And The World
Rae Lewis-Thornton
Rae Lewis-Thornton had aspirations for a career as a political strategist, having served as the national youth director for the Reverend Jesse Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns. But she had to forgo that budding career when at 23 years-old she was diagnosed with HIV in 1986. Lewis-Thornton learned her status from the Red Cross, to whom she had donated blood. In 1994, she took one of the most courageous moves of her life when she publicly revealed her status on the December 1994 cover of Essence magazine. In the mid 90s, Lewis-Thornton served as a contributing editor for WBBM-TV, a CBS owned and operated television station for an ongoing series of first person stories on living with AIDS, for which she received an Emmy Award. She has also designed and handcrafted a line of fashion bracelets called The RLT Collection. Today, Lewis-Thornton serves as an ordained Baptist minister.
