BLACKQUEERRESISTANCEANDARTOFDRAG

By Kenzie Deppe

Drag culture as we know it now has a long and important history one that is rooted in Black queer culture and resistance. It played a critical role in the formation of visible Black queer communities, and influenced and inspired other queer communities. This institution, which, in the early twentieth century, came to serve as a site of resistance against, and protection from, homophobia and transphobia, can teach us much about resistance, accommodation, and queer change over time. As a white nonbinary person, I first became interested in drag after being placed on the planning board of my undergraduate college’s annual drag show. Realizing how little I knew about the history of drag culture, I strived to learn more. As I continue to study drag histories, I also continue to be convinced that such unsung histories have much to teach us all in our struggles for liberation, particularly regarding the power of persistence and determination

Drag balls began to appear after the end of the Civil War, and after emancipation was declared and claimed. Formerly enslaved Black people began to migrate into northern states and cities, becoming part of the Great Migration. While Black gay and gender non-conforming people had existed previously, this was one of the first times they were given the chance to organize and attend events made for and by them Drag balls were among the spaces created by new, emerging Black urban communities. The first documented ball was held in New York City in 1869 with the tradition reaching popularity among the local Black community by the 1890s; by this time masquerade balls had started to spread to other northern and mid-Atlantic cities (1). The most popular of these balls was held annually at Harlem’s Hamilton Lodge in New York. Cross-dressing was the heart of the event, in part because Black queer people faced arrest for cross-dressing in public Drag balls became a safe place for Black queer culture, as they were spaces created for and by Black queer people.

By the 1920s, as the Great Migration reached its height, the culture of Black queer communities had entered into public consciousness. Harlem was referred to as a “homosexual mecca ” and drag balls were quickly gaining popularity, especially among the Black working class. Events continued to appear and blossom in Black neighborhoods throughout the urban North, and in Southern cities such as New Orleans. Chicago joined New York with a thriving annual drag ball; its Finnie’s Ball attracted thousands of spectators. Finnie’s continues to thrive into the 1960s.

Performers leaned more into the act of cross dressing, becoming especially interested in displaying makeup and jewelry as well as clothing While white presses tended to ignore this expansion of Black queer culture, Black presses from the 1920s through the early 1950s were attentive to drag performers and performances. Often, they celebrated it (2).

Between the end of World War II and the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, Black queer people were commonly accepted and even celebrated. Drag performers in Detroit were lauded in the local Black press as “stellar artists” and “Detroit’s most talented and imaginative entrepreneurs.” Detroit’s drag queens were not secretive about their sexual orientation, singing of their lust for men and flirting with male patrons at drag balls. In New Orleans, it was common to see drag queens strolling the streets of the city’s Black district (3).

The Civil Rights Movement, however, brought with it dramatic change, some of which worked against the traditions Black queer communities had built As the movement began to take form in the 1950s, it moved to replace the freedom culture of the Black working class. Movement leaders promoted a culture of obligation, discipline, and self-denial. Many Civil Rights leaders believed that embracing middle-class white cultural norms would aid Black communities in their struggles against racism, white supremacy and violence. Many leaders of the Civil Rights Movement believed that heterosexual family structures were the most effective way to create respectable citizens Queer Black Americans did not fit into their mold, and so the drag scene moved underground (4).

White gay communities, who had long since co-opted drag culture, also moved away from the celebration of drag culture. Drag had often played a role in their social and cultural events, as well as the gay culture of San Francisco in general. Founded in 1964, SIR, or the Society for Individual Rights, was a queer organization seeking recognition and rights for gay people designed to serve the social needs of the gay community. SIR utilized drag balls as fundraising events, the most notable of these held on New Year’s Day in 1965. Despite prior clearance for the event to be held, attendees were harassed by police (5). Perhaps spurred on by this harassment, as well as normalized racism and classism through the want to separate themselves from Black and broadly poor drag queens of San Francisco, this endorsement and use of drag culture changed in March of 1967 A survey of some of their members found that the majority agreed drag was “detrimental” to their movement. Middle-class white gay men no longer found it acceptable to participate in drag and left it behind, only younger activists continued to use it as a form of protest (6).

(2) Thaddeus Russel. “The Color of Discipline: Civil Rights and Black Sexuality.” American Quarterly 60, no. 1 (2008), 103-106.

(3) Ibid , 107-109

(4) Ibid , 101, 112-123

(5) Martin Meeker “Behind the Mask of Respectability: Reconsidering the Mattachine Society and Male Homophile Practice, 1950s and 1960s ” Journal of the History of Sexuality 10, no 1 (2001): 109-115

Black drag culture, however, was still growing and changing. While some sites went underground, “Houses” began appearing in the 1970s, so called because their social structure mimicked that of a heterosexual household. A house had a “mother” (usually an elder drag queen or transfemme), occasionally a “father” (elder butch or transman), and “children” that they cared for. While they were still competing in drag competitions, their primary purpose was to continue to provide a sense of community, especially for young queer people of color (7). These houses also allowed for members to protect each other from random homophobic passersby and police harassment Forced to leave their previous communities, they made new ones (8)

The development of drag culture allowed for the development of Black urban communities and Black queer communities. In the early twentieth century, such communities flourished as spaces of care, support, and creativity. Queer Black drag functioned as a system of resistance, one that allowed people cultural preservation and community protection. This act of resistance allowed for queer survival, and for drag to become what it is today It created hope for queers of color and futurities not yet realized.

(6) Betty Luther Hillman “The most profoundly revolutionary act a homosexual can engage in”: Drag and the Politics of Gender Presentation in the San Francisco Gay Liberation Movement 1964-1972 ” Journal of the History of Sexuality 20, no 1 (2011)

7) Amy Herzog and Joe Rollins, “Editors’ Note: House Style ” Women’s Studies Quarterly 41, no 1 (2012): 9–10

(8) Marlon M Bailey, “Gender/Racial Realness: Theorizing the Gender System in Ballroom Culture ” Feminist Studies 37, no. 2 (2011): 366–69.

ReadMore

Allen, Jafari S There’s a Disco Ball Between Us: A Theory of Black Gay Life Durham: Duke University Press, 2022.

Chevat, Richie, and Michael Bronski. A Queer History of the United States for Young People. Beacon Press, 2019.

Joesph, Channing Gerard House of Swann: Where Slaves Became Queens Penguin Random House, 2021.

Jones, Amelia. In Between Subjects: A Critical Genealogy of Queer Performance. London: Routledge, 2020.

Prager, Sarah, and O'Ferrall Zoë More Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World. HarperCollins, 2018.

"IT'S JUST HAIR"

She used to pull my hair back and tell me it looked better out of my face. I think this made a younger version of me weaponize it. Hiding behind bangs and bright colors. In nature this is used to ward off predators. I did not want her to see me, or men like him to touch me ever again. Today I pulled my hair back. I did it gently. I was oiling my curls trying to revive them from all the damage over the years. It made me realize a new time had begun. I no longer worry about her seeing me because she never looked anyway. I’m no longer warding off anyone. I learned to protect myself. No one around me would ever let me hurt like that again. So today, I pulled my hair back. The waves flowed down my back. I thought of how all the cells in my body renewed so he has no longer touched me. I thought of how my mother does not love me without crying. As dumb as it is, being just hair, I felt for the first time in a long time. Soft and unarmed.

YOU WAS AN UNSTOPPABLE FORCE"

I can look at myself with new eyes as I am no longer a reflection of you I don’t see where you ’ ve kissed me since someone new will kiss those memories away too

I no longer pray to the gods that you see me because I have eyes of my own someone new will look into those too my friends will see me beam and ask if I had spoken to you and the smile will be genuine when I say “ never again” loving you was never an unstoppable force

-AK-

Poem by A.K.