They were just holding us almost like in a hostage situation where you don't know what's going to happen next. After two years, police said they had been informed that liquor was being served on the premises. Stonewall 25: Cases 1-2 - Columbia University WebDocument C: Mattachine Society of New York Newsletter 1. The New York Times / Redux Pictures woman, whose identity was not known, was arrested. Seven pages of records were released by the citys Police Department in response to a Freedom of Information Law request. They put some people on the street right in front ofThe Village Voiceprotesting the use of the word fag in my story. Doric Wilson:And I looked back and there were about 2,000 people behind us, and that's when I knew it had happened. William Eskridge, Professor of Law:All throughout the 60s in New York City, the period when the New York World's Fair was attracting visitors from all over America and all over the world. They'd think I'm a cop even though I had a big Jew-fro haircut and a big handlebar mustache at the time. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:But there were little, tiny pin holes in the plywood windows, I'll call them the windows but they were plywood, and we could look out from there and every time I went over and looked out through one of those pin holes where he did, we were shocked at how big the crowd had become. And it was one of the fewif not the onlygay bar left that allowed dancing. Joe DeCola There may be some here today that will be homosexual in the future. I mean I'm only 19 and this'll ruin me. Dick Leitsch:So it was mostly goofing really, basically goofing on them. 400 Plankinton Ave. Compton's Cafeteria Raid, San Francisco, California, 1966, Coopers Do-Nut Raid, Los Angeles, California, 1959, LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Part I, LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Part II, Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century, International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture. All I knew about was that I heard that there were people down in Times Square who were gay and that's where I went to. The ones that came close you could see their faces in rage. Stonewall Riots Dana Gaiser And the people coming out weren't going along with it so easily. WebIn the early hours of Saturday, June 28, 1969, a riot broke out during a police raid of the Stonewall Inn, an LGBT bar. What Jimmy didn't know is that Ralph was sick. So gay people were being strangled, shot, thrown in the river, blackmailed, fired from jobs. I said, "I can go in with you?" Calling 'em names, telling 'em how good-looking they were, grabbing their butts. Then during lunch, Ralph showed him some pornographic pictures. They didn't know what they were walking into. It was an age of experimentation. They were the storm troopers. Martha Shelley And I hadn't had enough sleep, so I was in a somewhat feverish state, and I thought, "We have to do something, we have to do something," and I thought, "We have to have a protest march of our own." It's very American to say, "You promised equality, you promised freedom." I grew up in a very Catholic household and the conflict of issues of redemption, of is it possible that if you are this thing called homosexual, is it possible to be redeemed? Stonewall Riots I made friends that first day. John O'Brien:And deep down I believed because I was gay and couldn't speak out for my rights, was probably one of the reasons that I was so active in the Civil Rights Movement. And when you got a word, the word was homosexuality and you looked it up. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:TheNew York TimesI guess printed a story, but it wasn't a major story. Remember everything. We were winning. Police violence and bar raids did not end after Stonewall. Noah Goldman And a whole bunch of people who were in the paddy wagon ran out. In 2016, then-President Barack Obama designated the site of the riotsStonewall Inn, Christopher Park, and the surrounding streets and sidewalksa national monument in recognition of the areas contribution to gay rights. They were not used to a bunch of drag queens doing a Rockettes kick line and sort of like giving them all the finger in a way. Foreword Reviews "The Stonewall Riots is an invaluable addition to the existing literature on the LBGT movement and the sexual revolution. Chris Mara, Production Assistants That was our world, that block. Maybe the guys name was real (parents do name their kids after saints) but maybe it was just given at the time of arrest. Mary Queen of the Scotch, Congo Woman, Captain Faggot, Miss Twiggy. Documenting the Stonewall Riots: A Bibliography of 50 Years After Stonewall The lasting impact of the Stonewall Riots. The mayor of New York City, the police commissioner, were under pressure to clean up the streets of any kind of quote unquote "weirdness." You throw into that, that the Stonewall was raided the previous Tuesday night. I am not alone, there are other people that feel exactly the same way.". Document You can also receive it via email. Against David Van Milestones in the American Gay Rights Movement. Stonewall Rebellion - HIS 100 - Perspectives in History - Research Just let's see if they can. Notably, an uncounted number of LGBTQ+ people have died as a result of police raids on gay spaces. But instead of responding with the routine compliance the NYPD expected, patrons and a growing crowd decided to fight back. More info at //www.nypl.org/calendar. Richard Enman (Archival):Well, let me say, first of all, what type of laws we are not after, because there has been much to-do that the Society was in favor of the legalization of marriage between homosexuals, and the adoption of children, and such as that, and that is not at all factual at all. The five days of rioting that ensued changed forever the face of gay and lesbian life. The Stonewall riots inspired gay Americans to fight for their rights. Narrator (Archival):Do you want your son enticed into the world of homosexuals, or your daughter lured into lesbianism? traumatic physicaL, emotional and financial personal experience of my own at the time, I nonetheless said a silent prayer for those who were brave enough to be fighting for freedom. My father said, "About time you fags rioted.". And then as you turned into the other room with the jukebox, those were the drag queens around the jukebox. They can be anywhere. The Stonewall Riots : A Documentary History edited by Marc Stein provides He was not present at the riot. morning and a round-up in Monday's print edition. Narrator (Archival):This is one of the county's principal weekend gathering places for homosexuals, both male and female. Eric Marcus, Recreation Still Photography WebThe legacy of the Stonewall riots still makes its impact today. WebJune 28, 1969, Greenwich Village: The New York City Police Department, fueled by bigoted liquor licensing practices and an omnipresent backdrop of homophobia and transphobia, raided the Stonewall Inn, a neighborhood gay bar, in the middle of the night. WebView Valiyah Johnson - Stonewall Riot Questions.pdf from ACCT 40 at Georgia Virtual School. Geoff Kole Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:If someone was dressed as a woman, you had to have a female police officer go in with her. June is internationally recognized as Pride Month, and this years celebrations mark the 50 th anniversary of the Stonewall Riotsthe catalyst for the modern LGBTQ+ civil rights movement.. The reference to these events as riots was initially used by police to justify their use of force. Armed with a warrant, police officers entered the club, But everybody knew it wasn't normal stuff and everyone was on edge and that was the worst part of it because you knew they were on edge and you knew that the first shot that was fired meant all the shots would be fired. Older groups such as the Mattachine Society, which was founded in southern California as a discussion group for gay men and had flourished in the 1950s, soon made way for more radical groups such as the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA). Things were being thrown against the plywood, we piled things up to try to buttress it. The Stonewall Inn opened its doors as a gay bar in 1967 in Greenwich Village, We will continue to publish one item each weekday The first police officer that came in with our group said, "The place is under arrest. WebHIS 100 Module Four Activity Template: Historical Narratives Xavier Bethea Locate an additional secondary source relevant to your historical event. rebellion in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969. Virginia Apuzzo:It's very American to say, "This is not right." It eats you up inside. Charles Harris, Transcriptions Judy Laster Martin Boyce:That was our only block. Some are only available in physical libraries and archives, but many have been digitized. Stonewall Riots 1969: Stonewall Riots. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:We were looking for secret exits and one of the policewomen was able to squirm through the window and they did find a way out. One such well-known gathering place for young gay men, lesbians, and transgender people was the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, a dark, seedy, crowded bar, reportedly operating without a liquor license. the six-day series of disturbances that began as a protest by gays against police harassment and became a defining moment in the gay-rights movement. He was later sued by the police officer, Gilbert Weisman, for assault, and had to pay a fine. Martha Shelley:They wanted to fit into American society the way it was. Marc Steins The Stonewall Riots: A Documentary History is a primary-source collection of the sort that a professor might assign in a class on social movements. John O'Brien:Whenever you see the cops, you would run away from them. Mayor John Lindsay, like most mayors, wanted to get re-elected. If you came to a place like New York, you at least had the opportunity of connecting with people, and finding people who didn't care that you were gay. The Stonewall Riots marked the beginning of the gay liberation movement that has transformed the oppression of gays and lesbians into calls for pride and action. We could easily be hunted, that was a game. So you couldn't have a license to practice law, you couldn't be a licensed doctor. Never, never, never. The event sparked the formation of scores of gay rights organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, OutRage! And so there was this drag queen standing on the corner, so they go up and make a sexual offer and they'd get busted. Many historians characterized the uprising as a spontaneous protest against the perpetual police harassment and social discrimination suffered by a variety of sexual minorities in the 1960s. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. manner of the way the police conducted themselves. << /Length 5 0 R /Filter /FlateDecode >> Dick Leitsch:It was an invasion, I mean you felt outraged and stuff like you know what, God, this is America, what's this country come to? Martin Boyce:There were these two black, like, banjee guys, and they were saying, "What's goin' on man?" And it was fantastic. Stream thousands of hours of acclaimed series, probing documentaries and captivating specials commercial-free in HISTORY Vault. The records concern the start of the Stonewall uprising in the early morning of June 28, 1969. A couple of weeks before, friends in WebHIS 100 Module Four Activity Template: Historical Narratives Xavier Bethea Locate an additional secondary source relevant to your historical event. Library of Congress - The Stonewall Uprising of 1969, Columbia University - The Stonewall Riots, Stonewall riots - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). other rioters, Wolfgang Podolski and Thomas Staton, whose involvement in the disturbances had not been documented before. Virginia Apuzzo: I grew up with that. Replace the bracketed text with your responses. Mike Wallace (Archival):Two out of three Americans look upon homosexuals with disgust, discomfort or fear. HIS 100 Module Four Activity Narratives.docx - HIS 100 Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:This was the Rosa Parks moment, the time that gay people stood up and said no. Todays post comes from Rachel Rosenfeld in the National Archives History Office. He brought in gay-positive materials and placed that in a setting that people could come to and feel comfortable in. First you gotta get past the door. Stonewall riots, also called Stonewall uprising, series of violent confrontations that began in the early hours of June 28, 1969, between police and gay rights activists outside the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in the Greenwich Village section of New York City. by David Carter, Associate Producer and Advisor Atascadero was known in gay circles as the Dachau for queers, and appropriately so. Corrections? My last name being Garvin, I'd be called Danny Gay-vin. And I had become very radicalized in that time. Linton Media None of the nine pages of reports And as I'm looking around to see what's going on, police cars, different things happening, it's getting bigger by the minute. Dana Kirchoff Based on Richard Enman (Archival):Ye - well, that's yes and no. The Stonewall Riots: A Documentary History Barak Goodman They could be judges, lawyers. According to all of these documents one of the main causes of these riots were sparked whenever they failed to pay off the cops. The Genovese family bribed New Yorks Sixth Police Precinct to ignore the activities occurring within the club. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/stonewall Raymond Castro:There were mesh garbage cans being lit up on fire and being thrown at the police. Interviewer (Archival):Are you a homosexual? Absolutely, and many people who were not lucky, felt the cops. But I had only stuck my head in once at the Stonewall. Evan Eames With riveting narrative skill, he recreates those revolutionary, sweltering nights in vivid detail through the lives of six people who were drawn into the struggle for LGBTQ rights. I mean does anyone know what that is? Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:It was always hands up, what do you want? Stonewall Inn. You know, we wanted to be part of the mainstream society. On the one-year anniversary of the riots on June 28, 1970, thousands of people marched in the streets of Manhattan from the Stonewall Inn to Central Park in what was then called Christopher Street Liberation Day, Americas first gay pride parade. Although the Stonewall riots cannot be said to have initiated the gay rights movement as such, it did serve as a catalyst for a new generation of political activism. However, once the bar reopened the next day, the cops planned a surprise raid that upcoming weekend. Martin Boyce:I wasn't labeled gay, just "different." Ed Koch, Councilman, New York City:There were complaints from people who objected to the wrongful behavior of some gays who would have sex on the street. Corbis ", Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And he went to each man and said it by name. Colonial House Dick Leitsch:And that's when you started seeing like, bodies laying on the sidewalk, people bleeding from the head. I was back living in my hometown of Bangor, Maine when I heard the news on the local radio station of the riot at the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. It is usually after the day at the beach that the real crime occurs. Jerry Hoose:Who was gonna complain about a crackdown against gay people? Quentin Heilbroner Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. They are taught that no man is born homosexual and many psychiatrists now believe that homosexuality begins to form in the first three years of life. and not published at the time, have resurfaced only in recent years.). Interviewer (Archival):What type of laws are you after? And then they send them out in the street and of course they did make arrests, because you know, there's all these guys who cruise around looking for drag queens. They had a warrant. Stonewall - Primary Sources: LGBTQ+ - LibGuides at Florida WebArrest Reports From the 1969 Stonewall Uprising. I was never seduced by an older person or anything like that. Stonewall Uprising | American Experience | PBS Doing things like that. It was a down at a heels kind of place, it was a lot of street kids and things like that. According to the documents the police allowed the bars to operate, overlooking violations in return for a percentage of the take.