Sparking a Movement

By Lauren Means

We have come far in our fight for equality in the LGBTQ+ community but we would be nowhere near where we are today if it weren’t for the groundwork that was laid by the Civil Rights Movement. The intersectionality between the two can’t be ignored. Trailblazers like Bayard Rustin and Marsha P. Johnson pushed political matters while artists like Audre Lorde and Alvin Ailey gave future creators the freedom to express themselves openly.

Below you will find the stories of those members of the Black LGBTQ+ community who paved the way for the people in our community who are making history today. These pioneers are beginning to get their stories told, but still have a long way to go to garner space in history books that are typically held by white, cis-gender (and oftentimes male) individuals. 

Bayard Rustin

Best known for helping to organize the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, along with Martin Luther King Jr., Bayard Rustin was behind the nonviolent, peaceful protests often utilized by Dr. King. He was known as one of the most influential and effective organizers of the civil rights movement. His sexuality was brought into question by some in the movement, but Dr. King always valued his expertise and commitment to the movement. 

Rustin was arrested 23 times throughout his civil rights career including a 1953 arrest where he was charged with vagrancy and lewd conduct in Pasadena, California. He served 50 days in Los Angeles County jail and had to register as a sex offender after being found having sexual relations with two men in a parked car. 

In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom pardoned Rustin for his arrest. In this pardon, Newsom also noted how, historically, LGBTQ+ people were unjustly punished for their sexuality by U.S. law enforcement. Rustin was also posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 2013 for his activism.

Rustin testified in favor of New York State’s Gay Rights Bill the year before he died. A version of this bill passed in 2002 — 15 years after Rustin’s death.

Marsha P. Johnson

Often seen as the face of the Stonewall Riots, Marsha P. Johnson was active in the LGBTQ+ movement up until her death in 1994. After graduating from high school, Johnson made the move from New Jersey to New York’s Greenwich Village where she found her family and community on Christopher Street. 

In 1970, Johnson and her friend Sylvia Rivera founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR). This program provided support, resources and advocacy for transgender youth. She was also an early member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). 

Johnson had a natural aptitude for art and theatrics. This made it no surprise she performed around the world with Hot Peaches, a drag theater company. She was also photographed by Andy Warhol and included in his “Ladies and Gentleman” Polaroid series. 

Although Johnson was very vibrant and boisterous, she had her share of dark moments including breakdowns, health scares, and run-ins with the law. She always persevered. She didn’t let the world bring her down.

Her shining light was dimmed in 1992 when her body was found floating in the Hudson River. Authorities recklessly declared her death a suicide without any evidence to substantiate this claim. It wasn’t until 2012 after private re-examinations of evidence that officials agreed to change the cause of death to undetermined and reopened the case where it’s an unsolved cold case.

Barbara Jordan

Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree Barbara Jordan was a civil rights leader and attorney. She became the first African American elected to the Texas Senate and the first woman and first African American elected to Congress from Texas. As a woman of firsts, Jordan also became the first African American woman to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.

Jordan retired from politics in 1979 and became an adjunct professor teaching ethics at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1990, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame as one of the most influential women of the twentieth century.

When she passed away in 1996, Jordan was survived by her partner of 30 years, Nancy Ear.

Alain Locke

Being born into a family of teachers, it’s no surprise Alain Locke also ended up in the field of education. He attended Harvard and completed his four-year program in three years where he graduated second in his class. Locke then became the first African-American to be named a Rhodes Scholar and received a scholarship to Oxford where he earned his Ph.D. This led Locke to his role in education as a philosophy professor at Howard University. 

Locke also embraced his position as a leading authority on African American culture. He edited several works of African American literature and actively promoted his theory of cultural pluralism. This theory declared a democratic society should value the uniqueness of the different styles within that culture. 

Through his theory of cultural pluralism, Locke helped gay African-American artists find pride in their heritage through their works of art. At the time of his death, he was working on completing  “The Negro in American Culture,” which was his definitive study of the contributions of African-Americans to American society. This work was eventually completed by Margaret Just Butcher by drawing on decades of work done by Locke.

Audre Lorde 

Audre Lorde spoke directly on the intersectionality of her life saying, “I am defined as other in every group I’m part of… my sexuality is part and parcel of who I am, and my poetry comes from the intersection of me and my worlds.” Lorde, an American feminist poet, published twelve books and a number of her poems were also published in anthologies.

In her writings, she tackled themes of love, fear, racial and sexual oppression, survival, and urban struggle along with her experiences as a woman, a lesbian, an African American, and a mother. In the 1970s, Lorde became the poetry editor for the lesbian journal, “Chrysalis: A Magazine of Women’s Culture.”

Lorde was also an advocate for global concerns. This led her to co-found Sisters in Support of Sisters in South Africa (SISA) to raise concerns about black women under apartheid. 

Alvin Ailey

Overcoming poverty, racism, and homophobia, Alvin Ailey became one of the most accomplished and celebrated choreographers to date. After being mentored by Lester Horton and studying under the likes of Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey, Ailey assembled a company of Black dancers and founded the Ailey American Dance Theater.

“Revelations,” Ailey’s choreographic masterpiece, is believed to be one of the best-known and most often seen modern dance performances ever created. Ailey combined elements from ballet, modern, jazz, African ritual and contemporary dances. He used each dancer’s uniqueness to set apart his choreography from mainstream choreography. By doing this, he brought concert dance into harmony with other forms of African-American expression.

Ailey achieved worldwide admiration and received numerous honorary degrees, accolades and awards including the United Nations Peace Medal. In 1988 Ailey received the Kennedy Center Honor in recognition of his extraordinary contribution to American culture.