Personal Life
Ailey kept his life as a dancer a secret from his mother for the first two years.
For a time during the 1950s, Ailey was romantically linked with political activist David McReynolds.
Ailey died on December 1, 1989 at the age of 58. To spare his mother the social stigma of his death from AIDS, he asked his doctor to announce that he had died of terminal blood dyscrasia.
Read more about this topic: Alvin Ailey
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“Nothing strengthens the judgment and quickens the conscience like individual responsibility. Nothing adds such dignity to character as the recognition of one’s self-sovereignty; the right to an equal place, everywhere conceded—a place earned by personal merit, not an artificial attainment by inheritance, wealth, family and position.”
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