Washington Blade - December 2, 2005

Cleve Jones, who co-founded the AIDS Memorial Quilt in San Francisco two decades ago, and the Atlanta-based Names Project Foundation, which owns and maintains the quilt, have sparred publicly since 2003.

"The Names Project believed the matter to be resolved," Charles Thompson, a San Francisco attorney who represents the organization, said last week. "However, Mr. Jones made unreasonable demands during further negotiations and the court has set a trial date of July 2006."

Jones, who recently moved from his home in Palm Springs, Calif., to San Francisco, could not be reached for comment.

In a lawsuit filed in San Francisco Superior Court in 2004, Jones claimed wrongful termination when the agency fired him in 2003 after he expressed discontent with directors of the non-profit. Jones had acted as a spokesperson for the organization at an annual salary of $41,500 until his termination.

Jones, who is HIV-positive, wanted to launch a nationwide tour of the entire quilt in 2004, ending with a display at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The foundation disagreed.

The legal maneuver was also an attempt by Jones to return the more than 44,000-panel quilt to San Francisco, where it was located before the Names Project moved to Atlanta in 2001.

Earlier this year, Superior Court judges in San Francisco threw out the wrongful firing and breach of contract portion of Jones' suit. Jones' claim that the foundation intentionally caused him mental distress was allowed to go forward.

In September, Jones dropped the suit as part of a settlement, according to Thompson. But demands by Jones during the proceedings have now derailed the agreement, Thompson said. He would not elaborate on the demands.

Jones' attorney, Angela Alioto, did not return calls seeking comment.

Fight over panels

But Alioto told the San Francisco Chronicle in an article published Nov. 22 that the Names Foundation did not want Jones to have the very first panel of the quilt, which he made in honor of his longtime friend, Marvin Feldman. According to Alioto, the organization also declined to put on its Web site a link to a San Francisco organization Jones plans to start.

Under the principal settlement, Jones was to establish his own non-profit to be called the San Francisco Bay Area Friends of the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

The Names Project agreed to send 35 of the 12 feet by 12 feet panels that make up the quilt to San Francisco as a loan to Jones. But that agreement was halted, according to Thompson.

"We agreed to provide him with a limited number of panels to display," Thompson said. "The Quilt remains Names Project property at all times."

He did not address whether the panel dedicated to Feldman was to be included in the loan to Jones.

Julie Rhoad, executive director of the Names Project, would not comment on the lawsuit, but did address Jones' accusation that the group did not want to display the entire quilt in 2004.

"It is always our wish to be in a position to display the entire quilt," Rhoad said. "But it is much more than just shipping the panels to a site and putting the quilt together.

"We have to line up readers and speakers, arrange candlelight marches and hold receptions. It's really difficult to answer the question of cost on a whole," she added.

Hundreds of displays of portions of the Quilt were planned for World AIDS Day, Dec. 1, according to the organization.

"Our work is to keep it on the road," Rhoad said. "But we also serve a two-fold purpose - to bring new quilt panels into the memorial."

The Names Project recently received a $97,500 matching grant from Save Our American Treasures, she noted.

"This grant takes the quilt itself as a viable, compelling representation of life in the age of AIDS," Rhoad said. "It is finally being recognized as a national treasure."

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