Pride Month 2020: How the Black Pride of 1991 evolved into a safe space for queer people of color
In 1969, the raid of Stonewall Inn, a gay club, sparked wide protests in New York City's Manhattan area, which essentially galvanized the LGBTQ+ movement. The following year, to mark the first anniversary of the riots, gay activists across the country organized marches on the last Saturday of June and proposed that it be made into an annual event. In the years that followed these, marches became more prominent and eventually evolved into the Pride parades that we know and witness each year. While the first Pride parade boasted assimilated crowds comprising queer people from all walks of life, regardless of race and gender, it further paved the way for more divisions. In fact, in May 1991, Washington DC organized its first official Black Pride, to honor all African-American individuals who identified as queer.
People of color, primarily from the black and Latinx community had been fighting to be seen, heard and respected in the United States since the late '60s. In 1968, singer-songwriter James Brown released, 'Say it Loud - I'm Black and Proud', while Olympic athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos, each raised a black-gloved fist in defiance as the US national anthem played at the Summer Olympics in Mexico. In 1969, the Stonewall Riots saw many young street kids and club patrons, mostly people of color, fighting against police brutality and advocating for their rights. A decade later, Kwame Brathwaite orchestrated the movement, 'Black is Beautiful' which gained national recognition. At a time where people of color were fighting to bring about race reforms through the revolutionary civil rights movement, they also instilled the essence of black nationalism. 'Black is beautiful', was adopted as the African-American universal language to ward off negative perceptions of being black.
The same notions revolved around Black Pride which arose in the latter part of the 20th century. It sought to emancipate the black community from white culture and ideologies while also encouraging African-American people wholeheartedly to embrace their heritage, bodies and liberate themselves from the clutches of oppression. Black Pride became a safe space for queer people of color to build a community, while also finding themselves. Technically, Los Angeles held the first Black Pride event in 1988, called 'At the Beach'. New York City's Black Pride traditions began in 1997, but truly the foundation for Black Pride was laid by Washington DC that had been informally observing a 15-year tradition called the 'Children's Hour.'
The Club House in DC was the center for socializing between 1975 and 1990 and catered to a black gay audience. It was notably known for hosting its Memorial Day weekend celebration, 'Children's Hour', which lasted through the night. It featured an elaborately themed party complete with guest performers and DJs and while it had initially started off as a small gathering for the Club House staff and members, as word spread, it drew a queer audience from across the country. However, the Club House closed its doors to the public in 1990, and many were left dishearted at possibly losing their Memorial Day tradition. The following year, Welmore Cook, Theodore Kirkland, and Ernest Hopkins came together to create an event program on May 25, called 'Let's All Come Together, Black Lesbian and Gay Pride Day'. The three men had been worried about growing HIV/AIDS endemic and envisioned organizing the first Black Gay and Lesbian Pride to raise funds for HIV and AIDS organizations serving African-American communities in Washington.
The event garnered a lot of attention at the time and more than 800 people had been in attendance. In the mid-90s as the annual celebration grew in popularity, the organizers decided to put together a board of directors. To make the event official, they also filed for incorporation and became a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, called the 'Black Lesbian & Gay Pride Day, Inc.' (BLGPD). This non-profit comprised an all-volunteer governing body and began overseeing the planning and execution of DC Black Pride. In 1992, Black Pride upped its festivities and took relevant steps to turn the celebration into a weekend-long festival. It had an event line-up that included a midnight cruise on the Potomac River, a Sunday prayer breakfast and the first Washington film screening of 'Tongues United', a groundbreaking film by Marlon Riggs.
Thirty years later, Black Pride has become more important than ever for it not only represents the black queer community but also gives them a platform for their voices to be heard. After years of being silenced and neglected, the black queer community comes together in masses of more than 300,000 to acclaim that they are gay, loudly, and proudly. Black Pride, in all its immaculate glory, also actively continues to raise awareness and funding for HIV/AIDS organizations. DC's Black Pride is still innate to the LGBTQ+ movement and continues to inspire many.