%PDF-1.3 William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The federal government would fire you, school boards would fire you. Your choice, you can come in with us or you can stay out here with the crowd and report your stuff from out here. Raymond Castro:We were in the back of the room, and the lights went on, so everybody stopped what they were doing, because now the police started coming in, raiding the bar. Lester Senior Housing Community, Jewish Community Housing Corporation They'd go into the bathroom or any place that was private, that they could either feel them, or check them visually. John O'Brien:And then somebody started a fire, they started with little lighters and matches. And as I'm looking around to see what's going on, police cars, different things happening, it's getting bigger by the minute. You see, Ralph was a homosexual. John O'Brien:They had increased their raids in the trucks. good people to the attention of your readers. Virginia Apuzzo:What we felt in isolation was a growing sense of outrage and fury particularly because we looked around and saw so many avenues of rebellion. He brought in gay-positive materials and placed that in a setting that people could come to and feel comfortable in. Martin Boyce:It was another great step forward in the story of human rights, that's what it was. And you will be caught, don't think you won't be caught, because this is one thing you cannot get away with. 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. There were gay bars in Midtown, there were gay bars uptown, there were certain kinds of gay bars on the Upper East Side, you know really, really, really buttoned-up straight gay bars. Dan Bodner The very idea of being out, it was ludicrous. Raymond Castro Updated: May 31, 2022 | Original: May 31, 2017. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:Well, I had to act like I wasn't nervous. Seymour Pine, Deputy Inspector, Morals Division, NYPD:They were sexual deviates. 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? I mean does anyone know what that is? COMM 2081 - Chapter 8; Everyone from the street kids who were white and black kids from the South. You were alone. Tires were slashed on police cars and it just went on all night long. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The homosexual, bitterly aware of his rejection, responds by going underground. Martin Boyce:And I remember moving into the open space and grabbing onto two of my friends and we started singing and doing a kick line. That was our world, that block. Martin Boyce:It was thrilling. Dick Leitsch:And I remember it being a clear evening with a big black sky and the biggest white moon I ever saw. Alfredo del Rio, Archival Still and Motion Images Courtesy of In this lesson, students analyze four documents to answer the question: What caused the Stonewall Riots? Over a short period of time, he will be unable to get sexually aroused to the pictures, and hopefully, he will be unable to get sexually aroused inside, in other settings as well. John O'Brien:I was with a group that we actually took a parking meter out of theground, three or four people, and we used it as a battering ram. We were thinking about survival. The lasting impact of the Stonewall Riots. Oddball Film + Video, San Francisco It provides references for primary documents related to the materials reprinted inThe Stonewall Riots; most of the sources come from newspapers, magazines, and newsletters. Calling 'em names, telling 'em how good-looking they were, grabbing their butts. And you felt bad that you were part of this, when you knew they broke the law, but what kind of law was that? All of this stuff was just erupting like a -- as far as they were considered, like a gigantic boil on the butt of America. Do you want them to lose all chance of a normal, happy, married life? John O'Brien:They went for the head wounds, it wasn't just the back wounds and the leg wounds. Martin Boyce:For me, there was no bar like the Stonewall, because the Stonewall was like the watering hole on the savannah. They were just holding us almost like in a hostage situation where you don't know what's going to happen next. Gay people were told we didn't have any of that. Evan Eames But I'm wearing this police thing I'm thinking well if they break through I better take it off really quickly but they're gunna come this way and we're going to be backing up and -- who knows what'll happen. Meanwhile, there was crowds forming outside the Stonewall, wanting to know what was going on. Mary Queen of the Scotch, Congo Woman, Captain Faggot, Miss Twiggy. The ones that came close you could see their faces in rage. Very sleazy and colorful place I recall seeing boys walking around in silver jockstraps, etc. It is usually after the day at the beach that the real crime occurs. John O'Brien:Heterosexuals, legally, had lots of sexual outlets. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of a sudden, in the background I heard some police cars. My father said, "About time you fags rioted.". And if enough people broke through they would be killed and I would be killed. WGBH Educational Foundation Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! . Dick Leitsch:We wore suits and ties because we wanted people, in the public, who were wearing suits and ties, to identify with us. Raids were still a fact of life, but usually corrupt cops would tip off Mafia-run bars before they occurred, allowing owners to stash the alcohol (sold without a liquor license) and hide other illegal activities. (Indeed, photographs taken by The New York Times from the final night of the riots, Certainly it was rare at the time to learn more than the first name or nickhame of someone you met casually in a bar. As members of the Mattachine Society of Washington, Frank Kameny and Lilli Vincenz participated in the discussion, planning, and promotion of the first Pride along with activists in New York City and other homophile groups belonging to E.R.C.H.O. It was not a place that, in my life, me and my friends paid much attention to. They would bang on the trucks. A medievalist. But you live with it, you know, you're used to this, after the third time it happened, or, the third time you heard about it, that's the way the world is. On this 50th anniversary of Stonewall, the National Archives pays homage to those who risked their lives protesting for their basic human rights. In 1999 the U.S. National Park Service placed the Stonewall Inn on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 2016 Pres. Fred Sargeant:In the '60s, I met Craig Rodwell who was running the Oscar Wilde Bookshop. Slate:Activity Group Therapy (1950), Columbia University Educational Films. How do you think that would affect him mentally, for the rest of their lives if they saw an act like that being? Anger erupted after New York City police arrested 13 people during a raid at the Stonewall Inn, a bar and safe space for the LGBTQ+ community. And a couple of 'em had pulled out their guns. National History Archive, LGBT Community Center David Alpert WebSTANFORD HISTORY EDUCATION GROUP sheg.stanford.edu Document B: Sylvia Rivera (Excerpt) Born and raised in New York City, Sylvia Rivera participated in the Stonewall Richard Enman (Archival):Ye - well, that's yes and no. Stonewall riots | Definition, Significance, & Facts | Britannica Replace the bracketed text with your responses. 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. Popular. He is the founder of Mattachine Society of New York. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:We would scatter, ka-poom, every which way. They raided the Checkerboard, which was a very popular gay bar, a week before the Stonewall. They didn't know what they were walking into. I famously used the word "fag" in the lead sentence I said "the forces of faggotry." Jerry Hoose The Stonewall riots inspired gay Americans to fight for their rights. Noah Goldman Many of those bars were, however, subject to regular police harassment. Corbis Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:What they did in the Stonewall that night. New York papers tend to call it the Stonewall uprising, not the Stonewall riot, because it played out as six days of skirmishes between young gay, lesbian, and The overwhelming number of medical authorities said that homosexuality was a mental defect, maybe even a form of psychopathy. WebWhile police raids on gay bars were routine in the 1960s, officers quickly lost control of the situation at the Stonewall Inn on June 28, 1969. Too bad we didnt get to the Stonewall, though very likely we walked by enroute to elsewhere. A Q-Ball Productions film for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE It was a horror story. Eric Marcus, Writer:Before Stonewall, there was no such thing as coming out or being out. And it's that hairpin trigger thing that makes the riot happen. Research assistance provided by Mario Burrus, Adam Joseph Nichols, and Cole Souder. Like many gay establishments at the time, the Stonewall Inn was owned by the mafia, and as long as they continued to make a profit, they cared very little what happened to their clientele. Gay Pride Week and March, was meant to give the community a chance to gather together to, "commemorate the Christopher Street Uprisings of last summer in which thousands of homosexuals went to the streets to demonstrate against centuries of abuse.from government hostility to employment and housing discrimination, Mafia control of Gay bars, and anti-Homosexual laws" (Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee Fliers, Franklin Kameny Papers). and this is further reason to believe that.. Danny Garvin:We had thought of women's rights, we had thought of black rights, all kinds of human rights, but we never thought of gay rights, and whenever we got kicked out of a bar before, we never came together. Because its all right in the Village, but the minute we cross 14th street, if there's only ten of us, God knows what's going to happen to us.". When The windows were always cloaked. Jerry Hoose:The open gay people that hung out on the streets were basically the have-nothing-to-lose types, which I was. Mr. Katz urged anyone Thanks to activists efforts, these regulations were overturned in 1966, and LGBT patrons could then be served alcohol. Somebody grabbed me by the leg and told me I wasn't going anywhere. That night, the Documents and Transcripts Listed by Time of Occurrence, from Earliest to Latest Document 1. Martha Shelley:I don't know if you remember the Joan Baez song, "It isn't nice to block the doorway, it isn't nice to go to jail, there're nicer ways to do it but the nice ways always fail." And the police escalated their crackdown on bars because of the reelection campaign. That never happened before. WebIt provides references for primary documents related to the materials reprinted in The Stonewall Riots; most of the sources come from newspapers, magazines, and Urban Stages Police raids and harassment were a common occurrence across the U.S. during this time, and amid the growing political activism of the 1960s,LGBTQ+ people began to mobilize and fight back. And I ran into Howard Smith on the street,The Village Voicewas right there. The reference to these events as riots was initially used by police to justify their use of force. And I just didn't understand that. 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. We assembled on Christopher Street at 6th Avenue, to march. Martha Shelley:When I was growing up in the '50s, I was supposed to get married to some guy, produce, you know, the usual 2.3 children, and I could look at a guy and say, "Well, objectively he's good looking," but I didn't feel anything, just didn't make any sense to me. We strive for accuracy and fairness. You knew you could ruin them for life. It meant nothing to us. Alexis Charizopolis On June 28, 1970, two thousand gay and lesbian activists in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago paraded down the streets of their cities in a new kind of social protest, one marked by celebration, fun, and unashamed declaration of a stigmatized identity. Website support provided by Margaret Paz. Stonewall Inn was registered as a type of private bottle bar, which did not require a liquor license because patrons were supposed to bring their own liquor. Martha Shelley:Before Stonewall, the homophile movement was essentially the Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis and all of these other little gay organizations, some of which were just two people and a mimeograph machine. When Martha Shelley, 25, climbed on top of a water fountain in a park near Stonewall exactly one month after the riot, she feared for her life. So it was a perfect storm for the police. The Genovese family bribed New Yorks Sixth Police Precinct to ignore the activities occurring within the club. What Jimmy didn't know is that Ralph was sick. Judith Kuchar People started throwing pennies. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:All of straight America, in terms of the middle class, was recoiling in horror from what was happening all around them at that time, in that summer and the summer before. other rioters, Wolfgang Podolski and Thomas Staton, whose involvement in the disturbances had not been documented before. Without police interference, the crime family could cut costs how they saw fit: The club lacked a fire exit, running water behind the bar to wash glasses, clean toilets that didnt routinely overflow and palatable drinks that werent watered down beyond recognition. (Close reading) According to this document, which groups of people had strong attachments to the Stonewall Inn? Geoff Kole As the riots progressed, an international gay rights movement was born. Just let's see if they can. Since the Stonewall was without a license, the place was being closed. Gay people were not powerful enough politically to prevent the clampdown and so you had a series of escalating skirmishes in 1969. In the trucks or around the trucks. The term like "authority figures" wasn't used back then, there was just "Lily Law," "Patty Pig," "Betty Badge." Anger erupted after New York City police arrested 13 people during a raid at the Stonewall Inn, a bar and safe space for the LGBTQ+ community. I have to wonder about the veracity of the name Vince DePaul doesnt it sound like a comical twist on the famous Society of St. Vincent de Paul of thrift-shop fame? The Stonewall had reopened. Watch documentary footage of the first Pride march held in New York City on June 28, 1970, Gay and Proud, a documentary by activist Lilli Vincenz: The S.V.A. Omissions? an unknown object. Mr. Van Ronk eventually pleaded guilty to harassment, a violation. So gay people were being strangled, shot, thrown in the river, blackmailed, fired from jobs. Was he present at the Stonewall Riots? The Mafia owned the jukeboxes, they owned the cigarette machines and most of the liquor was off a truck hijacking. John O'Brien:It was definitely dark, it was definitely smelly and raunchy and dirty and that's the only places that we had to meet each other, was in the very dirty, despicable places. Read a July 6, 1969excerpt fromTheNew York Daily News. 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." After two years, police said they had been informed that liquor was being served on the premises. 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. J. Michael Grey Doric Wilson:And we were about 100, 120 people and there were people lining the sidewalks ahead of us to watch us go by, gay people, mainly. stream << /Length 5 0 R /Filter /FlateDecode >> Jerry Hoose:Gay people who had good jobs, who had everything in life to lose, were starting to join in. Although I was going through an extremely I went in there and they took bats and just busted that place up. Since 1976, Metropolitan Diary has been a place for New Yorkers, past and present, to share odd fleeting moments in the city. Web(Close reading) According to this document, what had been happening in the weeks leading up to the Stonewall Riots? . Some are only available in physical libraries and archives, but many have been digitized. John Scagliotti Jerry Hoose:And we were going fast. This was in front of the police. E.R.C.H.O. John Marshall is listed as a representative for the Mattachine Society of Washington in the Christopher Street Liberation Day Committee Files, so researchers may wish to search that name specifically in the Kamney and Vincenz collections. Barbara Gittings and Kay Tobin Lahusen Gay History Papers and Photographs, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations Even non-gay people. Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:So at that point the police are extremely nervous. Corrections? "The rebellion (it was never a 'riot') lasted five inconsecutive nights (they were not 'riots')" -STONEWALL Veterans' Association. And Dick Leitsch, who was the head of the Mattachine Society said, "Who's in favor?" And, I did not like parading around while all of these vacationers were standing there eating ice cream and looking at us like we were critters in a zoo. One of the Was he present at the It was a way to vent my anger at being repressed. Library of Congress - The Stonewall Uprising of 1969, Columbia University - The Stonewall Riots, Stonewall riots - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). A History of Gay Rights in America. Joe DeCola Geordie, Liam and Theo Gude Within minutes, a full-blown riot involving hundreds of people began. The Stonewall Riots, also called the Stonewall Uprising, began in the early hours of June 28, 1969 when New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay club located in Greenwich Village in New York City. New York Today is still going strong! Martha Shelley:The riot could have been buried, it could have been a few days in the local newspaper and that was that. There was the Hippie movement, there was the Summer of Love, Martin Luther King, and all of these affected me terribly. While Stonewall became well known due to the media coverage and the subsequent annual Pride traditions, it was a culmination of years of LGBTQ+ activism. WebBusiness Core Capstone: An Integrated Application (D083) Documents Popular BANA 2082 - Chapter 1.1 Final Paper - COM 315 Summary Intimate Relationships - chapters 1, 3-6, 8-11, 13, 14 Ch. Tommy Lanigan-Schmidt:What was so good about the Stonewall was that you could dance slow there. 2. And when she grabbed that everybody knew she couldn't do it alone so all the other queens, Congo Woman, queens like that started and they were hitting that door. It was nonsense, it was nonsense, it was all the people there, that were reacting and opposing what was occurring. You know, we wanted to be part of the mainstream society. 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. John O'Brien:The election was in November of 1969 and this was the summer of 1969, this was June. Danny Garvin:And the cops just charged them. Narrator (Archival):Sure enough, the following day, when Jimmy finished playing ball, well, the man was there waiting. I hope it was. And it was one of the fewif not the onlygay bar left that allowed dancing. The police barricade was repeatedly breached, and the bar was set on fire. David Carter And they were lucky that door was closed, they were very lucky. Things were being thrown against the plywood, we piled things up to try to buttress it. ", Howard Smith, Reporter,The Village Voice:And he went to each man and said it by name. It sparked protests, political organization for gays, and gay pride parades. Martin Boyce:Well, in the front part of the bar would be like "A" gays, like regular gays, that didn't go in any kind of drag, didn't use the word "she," that type, but they were gay, a hundred percent gay. Documents. Martin Boyce:There were these two black, like, banjee guys, and they were saying, "What's goin' on man?" A police officer, Charles Holmes, was treated at St. Vincents Hospital after being bitten on the right wrist by a rioter. The only faces you will see are those of the arresting officers. I had never seen anything like that. This 19-year-old serviceman left his girlfriend on the beach to go to a men's room in a park nearby where he knew that he could find a homosexual contact. This produced an enormous amount of anger within the lesbian and gay community in New York City and in other parts of America. TV Host (Archival):Ladies and gentlemen, the reason for using first names only forthese very, very charming contestants is that right now each one of them is breaking the law. The police report documenting the assault on the automobile is part of a small set of documents nine pages in total posted online last week at OutHistory.org, Jerry Hoose:The bar itself was a toilet. After two years, police said they had been informed that liquor was being served on the premises. Lauren Noyes. Dick Leitsch:And the blocks were small enough that we could run around the block and come in behind them before they got to the next corner. They were getting more ferocious. 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? William Eskridge, Professor of Law:The Stonewall riots came at a central point in history. Lucian Truscott, IV, Reporter,The Village Voice:They started busting cans of tear gas. So I run down there. And that, that was a very haunting issue for me. Homo, homo was big. Once it started, once that genie was out of the bottle, it was never going to go back in. Doric Wilson:In those days, the idea of walking in daylight, with a sign saying, "I'm a faggot," was horren--, nobody, nobody was ready to do that. Gay bars were to gay people what churches were to blacks in the South. Because the owners were still making a profit, they simply adjusted to the raids, and were often tipped off about them ahead of time.The Stonewall was raided on average once a month leading up to the raid on June 28, 1969 (Martin Duberman,Stonewall p. 187), and had been raided once already that same week. The mirrors, all the bottles of liquor, the jukebox, the cigarette machines. Other images in this film are either recreations or drawn from events of the time. It was an age of experimentation. Article by a village voice reporter who was at Stonewall. The documents also cited A, B, C, & D) Another cause of the Stonewall Riots was the fact that being gay was illegal. Jimmy knew he shouldn't be interested but, well, he was curious.
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