The iconic work was then made into a 1961 film starring Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee. “A Raisin in the Sun,” named after a line in Langston Hughes’ poem “ Harlem: A Dream Deferred,” opened at New York City’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre in March 1959, becoming the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway. After the play’s release, Hansberry became the first Black playwright and youngest American to win a New York Critics’ Circle Award. Hansberry was an activist and playwright best known for her groundbreaking play “A Raisin in the Sun,” about a struggling Black family on Chicago’s South Side. David Attie / Getty Images Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965) Writer and playwright Lorraine Hansberry in her New York City apartment in April 1959. Baldwin spent a majority of his literary and activist career educating others about Black and queer identity, as he did during his famous lecture titled “Race, Racism, and the Gay Community” at a meeting of the New York chapter of Black and White Men Together (now known as Men of All Colors Together) in 1982. The novel stood out among literary critics because it features all white characters, unlike the civil rights activist's other novels which center the experiences of Black people. DeLarverie also served the community as a volunteer street patrol worker, and as a result, was called the " guardian of lesbians in the Village." Beyond her LGBTQ activism, DeLarverie also organized and performed at fundraisers for women who suffered from domestic violence and their children.Īuthor James Baldwin (Photo by Ted Thai) The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty James Baldwin (1924-1987)Ī writer and social critic, Baldwin is perhaps best known for his 1955 collection of essays, "Notes of a Native Son," and his groundbreaking 1956 novel, "Giovanni's Room," which depicts themes of homosexuality and bisexuality. She worked as a bouncer for several lesbian bars in New York City in the ‘80s and ‘90s, and held a number of leadership positions in the Stonewall Veterans Association. Then from 1955 to 1969, DeLarverie toured the Black theater circuit as the MC - and only drag king - of the Jewel Box Revue, the first racially integrated drag revue in North America. As a teenager, she joined the Ringling Brothers Circus where she rode jumping horses. Michelle V Agins / The New York Times via Redux Stormé DeLarverie (1920-2014)Ī biracial, butch lesbian, DeLarverie was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was always a performer. law enforcement at the time Rustin's arrest. In pardoning Rustin, Newsom noted how LGBTQ people were unjustly punished for their sexuality by U.S. Rustin served 50 days in Los Angeles County jail and had to register as a sex offender. Gavin Newsom pardoned Rustin for his arrest in 1953 when he was found having sex with two men in a parked car in Pasadena. He organized the 1963 March on Washington and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2013 for his activism. Rustin was an LGBTQ and civil rights activist best known for being a key adviser to Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Burns / Getty Images Bayard Rustin (1912-1987)
According to a belated obituary published in 2019, The New York Times said Bentley, who died in 1960 at the age of 52, was " Harlem's most famous lesbian" in the 1930s and "among the best-known Black entertainers in the United States."Īmerican civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. Donning a top hat and tuxedo, Bentley would sing the blues in Harlem establishments like the Clam House and the Ubangi Club. via Wikimedia Commons Gladys Bentley (1907-1960)īentley was a gender-bending performer during the Harlem Renaissance. “Racism combined with the forces of stigma, phobia, discrimination and bias associated with gender and sexuality have too often erased the contributions of members of our community." Glady Bentley. Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, told NBC News.
“As long as there have been Black people, there have been Black LGBTQ and same-gender-loving people,” David J. From 1960s civil rights activist Bayard Rustin to Chicago's first lesbian mayor, Lori Lightfoot, Black LGBTQ Americans have long made history with innumerable contributions to politics, art, medicine and a host of other fields.